She We'll Defend
by C-Alrich
Summary: Harper Witwicky is having a crappy week. First, her hacker friend told her that the love of her life, and his entire unit, died in an attack on an army base. And now her brother's new car, and her new bike, are taking on lives of their own. Literally. What the actual hell is going on? And what the hell is an NBE-One? Rated M for my paranoia. Pairing William Lennox&OC.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: "I do not own any part of the transformers franchise, or any of their characters. I own only Harper, and any original content that I make her do or say. Everything else is property of the amazing men and women who brought this story to life on the big screen. Thank you."

* * *

Chapter 1

As Harper Witwicky was finishing up the dishes for the evening, she can't help smiling at the men in the yard outside. Thanks to Sam, their parents had been convinced to take a long weekend away in a motel of their choice somewhere.

Harper still has no idea where they went exactly. She's just glad they left for a while. Because it meant that she could host her favorite people in the world for one final meal before they left for overseas again. Not that she couldn't do it at her apartment... but having the large house and the yard outside to entertain them in was much better in her opinion.

Harper loves the entire unit, make no mistake. The letters she wrote while they were away were for all of them, as individualized as they could possibly be. But these four in particular, were her favorites.

Fig, with his Spanish background and heritage, called her his 'chica' all the time. And Donnelly was simply fun to be around. But Epps… well, Epps was like her older brother. Since Sam was her younger brother, and she was always looking out for him, it was nice to feel like she had an older one.

Epps had been the first one she wrote a letter to. It had started in her sophomore year of high school, as an extra credit assignment. Harper had wanted to do it anyway, but the additional points to her grade pushed her 3.8 GPA to a 3.9. So yeah, she definitely pulled a soldier's name to write to for that.

When Epps had first received his letter, he'd expected it to be like a lot of others. Sure, there were some who wrote and actually wanted to express their gratitude towards the work the Army did. But a lot of the students that did this were just looking for the extra credit.

But not Harper. She didn't just say a line of gratitude and wish him well on his journey. Her phone number was at the bottom of the last page… of which there were at least four pages. She asked him about where he was, what he was doing, what his job was in the group. Did he have family, and would he like her to help them in some way while he was gone? She told him about herself, and her studies. She was going to get a business degree when she went to college, but she was also going to culinary school so she could be a chef. Her intention was to, eventually, start up her own bakery. That was her favorite thing to do. But she also promised him that if he came back to California, she'd be happy to cook him whatever kind of dinner he wanted.

On his first leave from duty, he took her up on that offer. And ever since, she'd been like his little sister. And he hadn't been able to help smiling when, after he'd told her his friends were jealous of his letters, she simply asked for their names so she could write to them as well.

Hence all four men now being in her backyard, finishing off the cheesecake she'd made as a dessert for them.

Or… well, three men were in the yard. Harper frowns for all of a moment, wondering where the other one had gone. Then she jumps when Will asks from nearby, "Are you ever going to let us do the dishes?"

Grinning as the man comes up to her side, she says, "Maybe. If you slowpokes ever manage to beat me here." "Oh… Ouch." Harper just laughs, and when he picks up a towel to dry what she's washing, she knows better than to argue with him about it. The first time he'd ever come and helped her out, she'd tried to make him go back and relax with the others. But Will, as much as he enjoyed relaxing and hanging out with his unit, also enjoyed taking advantage of opportunities to do things like this. Simple, household things, like dishes and laundry. Things that weren't really his tasks or concerns overseas.

As he puts the last plate away, he watches as Harper looks out at the other three still in the yard. Resting a hand on her back, he asks, "You gonna join us again?" "Yeah." The silent 'in a minute' is something she no longer feels the need to say to him either. He knew why she needed a minute. She was twenty-four now, so they'd all had eight years' worth of time to spend with her and get to know her. And they all knew that the prospect of them going back overseas, into enemy territory or into enemy hands, was always something she wouldn't like. She understood it, and admired it greatly, there was no mistaking that.

But these guys… they were family now. And proud as she was of them, she'd never really be happy with sending them away into the line of fire every time they had to leave.

Particularly Will, though Harper will never tell him that. Epps is the only one who knows about the crush she'd developed that had then slowly turned into love. The instant attraction to him had been for his deep voice, honestly. And, obviously, he was hot. But as she'd gotten to know him… and all of them… well, Harper found herself loving everything about the man. Even the little things he did that she sometimes couldn't stand, were things she still loved about him. Like when they were in a car and he'd turn the radio down so you could only barely hear the words. Harper has always hated that. The radio either needed to be on so you could hear it, or completely off. Not that ridiculous volume in which you can tell it's playing, but you have no idea what.

But she loved that about him too, because if he turned the volume down, it was either to make sure the conversation people were about to have didn't have to be shouted, or to make sure that if you were talking to him, you knew you had his attention. So yeah… she sometimes couldn't stand that he did it… but she loved him for it all the same.

As his hand runs up and down her back for a brief moment, she asks, "Do you guys have any idea how long you'll be gone this time?" Will shakes his head, "The report didn't say. Means we stay until the job's done." Harper nods, and then smiles wryly when he says, "We'll be alright, Harp."

Turning to look at him, she tells him the same thing she always tells him when he says that. "You shouldn't make promises that you aren't certain you'll be able to keep."

He takes no offense to that. He knew it wasn't because she thought they weren't capable of fighting and handling themselves. She knew, more than most, exactly what they were capable of. Hell, they were the ones teaching her how to fight when they were here, and setting her up with tutors when they were away.

But even the best of fighters in the world, when kicked hard enough, could be knocked down. There was no such thing as an invincible man. Everyone was human. Everyone was flesh and bone. And every single one of them might die in whatever land they were being sent to.

Will could say they'd be alright to other people, and they'd take him at his word. But Harper didn't want that. She wanted them all to come back, alive and well. But she didn't want someone promising her things when it wasn't within their power to assure its certainty. Only God himself, in situations like this, could make certain they'd be alright.

Harper leans away from the sink as Will moves closer. Wrapping her up in a hug, same as always, he cradles her head to his chest. Smoothing down some of her red curls, he says, "Then I promise to do everything I can to make sure we all make it back to you." Nodding against him, Harper sighs and hugs him in return. She squeezes tight, soaking him in while she can.

She lets him go before he starts leaning away. She doesn't want him to think she's being clingy, or get the idea that she's in love with him. The man was her friend, and she was not going to lose that. Even if he did make her heart skip beats whenever he'd grin at her.

Like he was doing now. Putting an arm around her shoulders, he says, "Come on. We stay in here too long, Epps will come looking for us. And we do not want a replay of what happened last time."

And then he laughs when Harper says, "He shouldn't have thrown me over his shoulder! It's not my fault my foot ended up kicking him in the face after that. You wanna pull crap like that, you need to be braced for the consequences." "Right. Because a broken nose is obviously the consequence in that situation." "It is when you aren't smart enough to hold the person's legs still! Geez!"

* * *

Chapter 1! I'm back guys! For those who are curious, this will be a nine chapter story. Quick and cute in my opinion. As always, these other stories I write are not as in-depth or as long as the teen wolf stories I wrote. But I hope you enjoy it and it makes you smile.

I also feel the need to point out a couple of things. First, is that I will not be continuing past the first movie with my stories. It ends here in this one. This is my favorite of the transformer movies, and so I'm sticking with this one. Second, is that I know in the movies, William Lennox actually has a wife and a kid. I got that. But for the purposes of my story, he doesn't.

Okay, I think that covers it. Thanks for reading! :)


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: "I do not own any part of the transformers franchise, or any of their characters. I own only Harper, and any original content that I make her do or say. Everything else is property of the amazing men and women who brought this story to life on the big screen. Thank you."

* * *

Chapter 2

Will couldn't help shaking his head with a grin as he listened to his men talking about what they were going to do when they finally got home. After five grueling months in the desert, behind enemy lines, they were all ready for a taste of home. Some, in particular, were hungry for their mother's alligator etouffee, whatever the hell that was.

As Epps and Fig begin going at it again, Fig switching to Spanish while trying to argue in his mother's favor, Will cuts in, "English! God… how many times do we have to… We don't speak Spanish. We told you that. _I_ told you that, more to the point."

It never matters though. Fig always claims that this is his heritage and he has a right to express it. It was times like this when, in spite of how dangerous their time in the desert had been, he would've appreciated Harper's company with them. She actually could speak Spanish. And French. And Irish Gaelic. Will had always thought that last one was a weird one to want to know, but it never ceased to make him smile when he remembered Harper's answer to why she'd wanted to learn it. A shrug of her shoulders, and she'd simply said " _It sounds cool. Doesn't it?"_

And when she was in the kitchen, distractedly singing one of the Celtic songs she had on her cooking playlist… he had to admit. It sounded like one of the most beautiful languages he'd ever heard.

After Donnelly talks about what a perfect weekend should be like, Fig finally switches back to English, "What about you, Captain? You got a perfect day?"

Yes, he did. Listening to Celtic songs being sung, while a beautiful red-head was cooking her way through an entire fridge in the kitchen.

Before he can say that though, Donnelly grins, "Ah… we all know what the Cap's perfect day is. All he needs is for Harp to be there, and he's right as rain." Epps pulls one of his headphones out, raising an eyebrow. Because, believe it or not, this was the first he was hearing of this.

Apparently for a reason, if Will's glaring eyes were anything to go by. Fig just punches his shoulder, "Ah, lay off, Captain. It's not like we don't all know by now. Your eyes light up the minute she opens the door, inviting us in with that wonderful aroma of cooked food floating out behind her." Will glares again, but then they all turn when Epps shouts, "What?!"

For a moment, no one really knows what his problem is. Then he asks in disbelief, "You have a thing for Harper?" Will rolls his eyes, "And this is why we never bring it up in front of him. He's like her big brother. He can't handle it." Epps raises an eyebrow, and then asks, "For how long?" Will shrugs, but then glares at Donnelly, who answers, "Oh, it started about a year after they first met. Well… probably before that. He fell in love with the girl behind our beautifully written letters first. Then he fell in love with the blue-eyed chef."

While the others are laughing and still picking at Will, Epps stares at him for another moment or two. Then he says, "So, just so I understand. For almost a total of seven years, you've been in love with Harper." Will glares at the other men again, but then sighs at the look Epps is giving him. Apparently, not answering the question, wasn't an option. So he finally throws up his hands, "Yes, alright. I'm in love with her. And… yeah, probably for seven years. I don't know, I haven't been counting."

Donnelly would've commented, except they all turned again when Epps exclaims, "Yeah, well I have. And she's been in love with you, almost since they day yawl first met."

When all of the men look at him in surprise, Epps rolls his eyes, "How am I the only one who doesn't know Will loves her, and I'm also the only one who knows Harper loves him? How did that happen? And you two..." He points at Will accusingly, but is also referring to Harper when he says, "The both of you are absolutely ridiculous. Spending seven years in love with each other, and neither one doing anything about it. What the hell?"

For a moment silence reigns, and then Fig turns to Will and says, "I got dibs on being best man!" Will's eyes widen before he then glares at Donnelly, who starts laughing uproariously. "They haven't even started dating yet man." "Yeah, but…"

Will ignores them, turning his attention back to Epps. And though still slightly annoyed at the whole situation itself, Bobby Epps gentles his features and tone as he says, "I'm not lying, man. She swore me to secrecy about this. Said she wasn't about to lose you as a friend because you make her heart go haywire. Secrecy that I've just broken, by the way. So if she ever asks how you figured this out, do not tell her it was me. Blame one of these other losers."

Finally, Will runs a hand over his face. There was a grin working its way onto his mouth at this point, but he still couldn't help muttering, "Shit. How did I… just… shit." Epps shrugs, "Oh, she's good at hiding it when she wants to be. So… yeah, I'm actually not surprised you never figured it out on your own." Turning to the others, he adds, "But I don't know how the rest of you fools didn't already figure this out. You got to be blind not to see the way she looks at him, or blushes when she thinks he's standing way too close."

Which starts up another argument between all the men, with Fig throwing his Spanish heritage back into the mix. But Will ignores them all for the time being. He can't take the smile off his face. All this time, he'd thought if he was just patient enough, he'd begin to feel that she was starting to love him in return. And in actuality, she was just hiding from him very well, so she wouldn't risk losing his friendship.

Interrupting the argument, he asks Epps, "Why is she afraid to lose me? Even if I didn't feel this way… I mean, none of us would do that to her. She… She's Harper." He says that as though it were explanation enough, and for all of them… well, it's all the reason they need. Harper was a bright light in their dark world out here on the battlefield. They'd all die for her, before they simply let anything bad hurt her.

But Epps sighs at the question. "She… I mean, she's secure in who she is as a person. She won't be changing for anybody. She's just… insecure at times, about how other people view her and respond because of that. She doesn't really see herself as the priceless person that we do. And… well, she kind of holds the opinion that no one else sees her that way either."

When all the men look at him like that idea is crazy, Epps explains, "Her parents always wanted a boy. Alright? So when she came out first, they were a bit disappointed. So there was that already. Then Sam showed up, and she was even further pushed to the side. So… it's kind of amazing that she has any self-confidence at all. And part of that's probably to do with Sam. It never mattered to him that his parents doted on him here and there. They're still kind of crazy, and Harper's always been his place of solace in that house. They're friends, despite how differently their parents treat them."

Back to Will, he says, "But, yeah. She's insecure. She never really had her parents. She doesn't want to lose anyone else that might mean that much to her. Mainly, you."

When they touch down in Qatar, as they're hopping onto the helipad, Fig asks, "So… what you gonna do now Captain?" Will simply replies, "I need to make a call." Donnelly and Fig slap hands behind his back, while Epps asks, "What are you gonna say to her?" "I have no earthly idea. I just…" He still can't stop grinning as he says, "I just need to hear her voice."

And then they all laugh when Epps says, "Yeah, well, if you tell her that I told you about this, I will have her shun you for a month. It might be hard, because she loves you and all. But she promised a long time ago that she'd shun anybody who truly treated me badly while we were away, so I know she'll do it if I ask. And I don't know why you're laughing, Fig. If she refuses to shun Will, I'm gonna have her shun you. Simply for being an annoying pain in my ass."

* * *

As the computer screen inside the communications tent flashes to life, Will smiles as Harper's face appears on the screen.

Smiling back at him, she says, "Hey! Where's everyone else?" "Oh, they're all getting cleaned up for now. We just got in." "Oh, Will, you didn't actually have to call as soon as you got there. I could've waited." He just grins, "I couldn't. It's good to hear you." "It's good to hear you too. And see you. I've missed you guys."

He ponders it for a minute, and then answers, "Yeah, we've all missed you too, Harp." He wanted to tell her he loves her. Wanted to so bad, he couldn't believe she wasn't commenting about the huge smile on his face. But over a computer screen… no, that would not be the first time they did this.

Harper leans closer to the camera then, and it makes him laugh when she finally says, "You have a ridiculously huge smile on your face, Will. Does that mean you finally killed all the bad guys and get to stay home for a long time?" Shaking his head at her, he says, "It's just… been a long five months. Can't wait to get back there. Fig keeps talking about alligator etouffee… whatever that is. But I'm just looked forward to some more of your chicken and dumplings." "You always ask for that. Always. Don't you like eating anything else?" "I love eating anything you make. But you are also the only person, ever, who's managed to cook that dish in a way I actually like."

Harper turns her head away a bit, and Will knows she's blushing right now. He can't see it, but he can guess that she is now. She probably always was when she turned away from him. God, how could he have never seen that?

As the connection begins to go funky, Harper turns back to him with a frown. "Is everything alright?" Will glances around him, at everyone in this tent having the same problem. Frowning himself, he says, "Something must be going on outside. We'll probably lose the connection soon." Back to her, he adds, "But we're here, and we'll be home soon. Can't wait to see you Harper. We have some important things to talk about."

Harper raises an eyebrow at that, but as the connection weakens again, she simply leans closer, "Okay. Come home safe, Will. Please." "We will. We'll be there soon."

His ridiculous smile was the last thing she saw before the connection officially died. Well… his smile, and the sound of a large thump that seemed to shake everything around it.

Biting at her bottom lip briefly, Harper wonders if she really wants this to be the favor she asks Glen for. Technically, she could ask him for any favor she wanted. He always promised to have her back, due to all the goodies she continued to send him to taste test by express shipping. But…

Huffing, she hits the other number to call on her screen, and waits for Glen's face to appear. It was almost a guarantee that he was on the computer anyway. While Harper's own expertise was limited to chatrooms and what she could research on google, Glen was a hacker. His life was practically lived out on the digital spectrum of things.

When he appeared, he exclaimed, "Harper! My angel from baking heaven. What's the word?" "Sorry to disappoint, but I don't have a new treat for you to try." "Bummer. But you are still my baking angel, nonetheless. So, what's up?"

At her silence, Glen sits up straighter. It wasn't often that Harper actually asked for favors. Rarer even, did she ask for ones that she thought you'd probably say no to. So this, whatever it was, it was serious.

Braced as he was for that, his eyes widen when she says, "I… need you to keep tabs on an army unit that just got back into Qatar. They're supposed to be coming home soon. But… something was going on right before they hung up with me. And I… I just want to know that everything's okay. It doesn't have to be done right away. So… can you just call me, when you hear something?"

Glen stares at her for a moment, but then thinks on it some more. Nodding, he says, "Alright. It's not like you're asking me to break into the Pentagon or anything. Just spy, briefly, on an army base in Qatar." "Yes." "Alright. It's probably gonna be a while. But I'll let you know what I hear." "Thanks Glen. And I'll be sure to send double of the next batch of goodies I make up." "Aw, there's my angel!"

* * *

When Sam came to visit her at her apartment later that night, he walked in, slung his bag and coat towards the coat rack, and raced towards the kitchen. "Harper! You won't believe what dad just agreed to…"

He freezes the second he reaches the room. The fact that the kitchen smelled amazing wasn't surprising. Harper was always cooking in some form of fashion. If her apartment didn't sell like pastries, then it smelled like a kitchen would that had just prepared the Thanksgiving dinner for the whole family. That, in Harper's home, was normal.

But not this. Harper was usually meticulous about the food she prepared. She cooked it, plated it, and then boxed it up or put it away in the fridge or cupboard. Everything she'd just cooked now, would still appear as fresh in the morning or at tomorrow's lunch hour. Whenever it happened to be served.

But today... the kitchen was covered in pans and dishes. Nothing was put away. The room was a disaster. Not just a normal, 'I've been cooking for the past hour', kind of disaster. This was full-on, 'I haven't stopped cooking for days', type of disaster. And Sam had seen her yesterday, so this was definitely a disaster.

And he knew she only cooked like this when she'd learned some truly upsetting news. Like when Bobby's grandma had finally passed away, and Bobby hadn't been able to attend the funeral. But even that hadn't gotten Harper cooking this much.

Stepping in further, Sam grabs some oven mitts, and gently takes the pan of cookies out of Harper's hands. She pauses for a moment, as though confused about why the pan was suddenly gone. But then she just removed her mitts, preparing to return to the table to cook.

Sam catches her flour covered hands in his, "Harper? What's wrong?"

She had the trails of past tears still left on her face as she looked up at him. And there was a sadness still in her eyes that he hadn't ever seen before. She looked, for lack of a better word, heartbroken.

She nearly choked when she first opened her mouth. But finally, she began telling him, "Glen… called me back. It only took him about two hours to hack into the information about Will's unit. And he… he told me…"

Sam waits for her to get it out, and then his eyes widen right along with hers as she says, "They're dead. They're… all dead. No… no survivors. The entire base was wiped out, and they're… they're dead." And as her entire body starts to shake, Harper shrieks, "They're all dead! Will! Bobby! Fig! Donnelly… they're all dead! Oh my God! I… I can't…"

Sam catches her as she begins crumbling to the ground. Pulling her back up, he brings her into the living room, and sits her on the couch. He leaves for just a moment, long enough to make sure everything in the kitchen is turned off, and then to grab her a bottle of water from the fridge. Then he comes back to sit next to her, letting her lean over and rest against him while she weeps.

He knew how much these guys meant to her. And though Sam might not be the most popular guy in school, he had friends all over the place. Harper didn't have many. Wasn't really a social butterfly... never had been and never would be. These guys had been her friends. Well… and him and Glen. There were a few others that she had taste test her food, and they considered her a friend too. But mostly, it was Will, Epps, the other army guys in the unit, and then Sam. That was it.

And now Harper had just lost a huge chunk of the people who mattered to her. He's honestly surprised it's only the kitchen that's covered in food, and not every other surface of the house as well.

* * *

It's three in the morning when Harper wakes up. Sam and she had stayed on the couch all night. Rubbing at her face, trying to get the salty remains of tears brushed away, she nudges her little brother to wake him up.

For a moment they just sit there in silence. Then Harper sighs before asking, "So… what did dad agree to do for you?" "Not important." "It is important, Sam. Just because I'm grieving, doesn't mean you can't have something happy and important happen at the same time. Just… means the world has crappy timing sometimes, is all. So… what happened?"

So Sam explains that, if he can ace his genealogy class in two days, dad will help him pay for his first car. Harper smiles a little at that, and then says, "By then, I should be able to function like a normal human being again. And I need a new bike so I can stop paying for a cab to make deliveries. Want me to come with?" "Only if you want, Harper. I know…" "Yes, they're important. But so are you, Sam. So I'll be there."

As she's showing him to the door, she says, "Also, just… be prepared for dad to try and pull some sort of joke at first. If he drives you through a new car lot to try and make you think you're getting a brand new car… yeah, don't fall for that. You're the favored son, we know that. But for your first car… yeah, he's not going to do that." Sam nods, "Expectations managed. Thanks for the heads up. See you Friday?" "Friday."

After he's gone, Harper returns to her kitchen to view the mess she'd made. Sighing, she texts Sam, _"Also, if you need help buttering up your professor to get the A, let me know. I have just about anything he could possible want to eat in here at this point."_

As she puts everything away, tidying up before returning to bed, she can't help but wonder what she was going to do now. Obviously, she still had the families of these men that she could help comfort. They were extended family to her as well. But… no one was going to be able to replace her lost friends.

No one was going to be able to replace Will.

As a tear runs down her face again, Harper sighs and glances up at the ceiling. Shaking her head, she asks, "What exactly am I supposed to do now?"

* * *

Chapter 2, done! Yay!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: "I do not own any part of the transformers franchise, or any of their characters. I own only Harper, and any original content that I make her do or say. Everything else is property of the amazing men and women who brought this story to life on the big screen. Thank you."

* * *

Chapter 3

At the used car lot, Sam gives Harper an appreciative glance for her warning the days before they'd gotten here. Ron had indeed tried to play a joke on his son by taking him past a brand new Porsche, before then taking them to the used car lot.

As her brother and dad walk with Bobby Bolivia to look at some cars, Harper steps towards the motorcycles to see which one might suit her. She needed one that had enough space on the back so she could strap a cake container to it. Tight enough that it wouldn't shake too much, or risk falling off. Or, if the bike was just built well enough that she could add her own saddlebags; that would work as well.

Obviously, a car would probably be better suited for such deliveries. But Harper liked bikes. And as long as she didn't take sharp turns while on deliveries, everything turned out fine. And in the long run, as long as she didn't get a sports bike, motorcycles ended up being cheaper. Lower gas mileage, and lower initial cost. So yeah, she was going with a bike.

And the green one that caught her eye… it's perfect. It was long enough to have space for her things, but still looked slender and sleek at the same time. There was also a silver stripe down both sides that added a little extra flare, and the handle bars reached back far enough that she wouldn't have to lean forward too much to reach them.

Harper had an odd body; that was simply a fact to her. She had slightly longer legs than what she'd consider average, but she had a shorter torso than normal. Put that with her paler skin and red curly hair, and she considered it to be impressive that she'd managed to have three boyfriends at all, in the span of her lifetime.

That probably had to do with the fact that her breasts were larger than what was considered average. Sometimes, some men could be so easily figured out. But, anyways…

The bike was good for her, and she liked it. But the stripe down the side, which added flare, was going to mean it added to the price of what it cost. Harper only hopes it's not much.

As Sam and Ron continue looking around, Harper gives out a whistle. Bobby hurries over, and she asks, "How much for this?" "That'll be… thirty-five hundred." Harper gives him a look, "It's rusty and faded, and the silver isn't even all that silver anymore. It's worth two thousand, maybe twenty-five hundred at most." "Sorry. Uniqueness like that can't be bought. Thirty-five hundred. Take it or leave it."

Harper was about to pay him that, honestly. She had four-thousand set aside for buying the bike, so that was doable with breaking her bank. But before she could say that, Sam called out, "Hey, how much for this car?"

The yellow car with racing stripes was rusty and faded too, but it had character, same as the bike she wanted. Which meant that Bobby was going to try and sell it for more than it was worth.

As he declares that the price is five-thousand and Ron declares he won't pay any more than four for it, Sam gets out of the car with a disappointed look on his face. Sighing herself, Harper turns back to the bike, looking at it one last time. Then she says, "You're beautiful, and I'd love to have you." Back to her brother, she says, "But this is his first car. And that's the only one here that doesn't look like a complete piece of junk. So… maybe if you're still here in a month, I'll get you then."

Sam can see her walking back over to them, one thousand dollars pulled out of her wallet for him to have. Coming up to her halfway, he says, "Harper, no. I can't let you do that." "Consider it an early birthday present, alright. I'm allowed to do that. I'm your older sister." "Yeah, who just suffered a tremendous loss." "Yeah… but I still have you."

She was smiling to let him know it was okay, and he was about to take it with the promise of getting dad to help pay for her bike that she wanted. That's when the car behind them set off a high pitched frequency, and the windows of every other vehicle in the place shattered. Literally, every single vehicle.

Except for the yellow Camaro. As Bobby scans the rest of his lot in horror and shock, he swiftly turns back to the Witwicky's and says, "Four… four thousand." And for the sake of not putting a complete jinx on his business, he looks to Harper and adds, "And… twenty-five hundred… for the bike."

Sam and Harper turn to each other for a moment, both trying to discern what the hell had just happened. Because obviously, this was weird. Like… it was actually really weird. But, they were both about to finally get a decent price on the vehicles they wanted. And one thing they both very much believed in, thanks to Epps, is that you do not shoot a gift horse in the mouth. You just take it. So finally, they both shrug, and then turn back to Bobby and say simultaneously, "Sold."

And as Harper drives home smoothly on her 'new' bike, she can't help a small grin. She was still incredibly sad and depressed. It had only been two days after all. But… this was a small victory. It was a little thing… but it still mattered.

She was going to have to look at the little things for a while, if she didn't want to keep returning her focus to the huge thing she just lost. Depressed was not a thing she believed in becoming. She was stronger than that.

And her army unit that she'd written to for years… they wouldn't want that from her. She would be tough for them. She would do this.

She has to.

* * *

Out in the desert, after three grueling days of traveling under the hot sun, Will and his unit finally stop for a breather. Mahfouz, a kid from the compound that they'd rescued along with them, knew the way out of the desert, and was taking them to his father's house. All they had to do was get there.

Spinning his cap around backwards and wiping some of the sweat from his face, Will turns to Epps as the man says, "I've never seen a weapons system like this. The thermal shows this weird aura around the exoskeleton… like it's cloaked by some kind of invisible force field."

As Will takes the scopes so he can see what Epps is talking about, Donnelly says, "That's impossible. There's no such thing as invisible force fields. Except in… like, comic books, and stuff. Right?" Epps shrugs, "Man, I don't know."

As Will covers his eye with one hand, trying to see the image more clearly, he tries to make out this thing that Epps is seeing. Because yes, it does look like some sort of force field. Which again, should be impossible. But also…

The thing looked like it had eyes. Eyes that were staring directly into the lens of this scope.

Fig, from on top of the tanker they'd found out here, says, "My mama, she had the gift, you know? She saw things. I got the gene too, and… that thing that attacked us? I got a feeling, it ain't over." Will looks up at him, briefly wondering if he's serious or not. But from the look on his face, their usually comedic friend was as serious as he'd ever been.

Donnelly however, skeptical as ever, says, "Well, why don't you use those magic voodoo powers, and get us the hell out of here? Huh?"

Will shakes his head, "We have Mahfouz for that. Who is doing great, by the way?" He gives the kid a smile, trying to keep him hopeful and encouraged. Then he moves to Epps, handing back the scope. Pointing at it, he asks, "You see what I see?" Epps already knows what he's talking about. Nodding, he says, "When I took that picture… I think it saw me. It looked right at me."

For a moment, everyone is silent. Then Will says, "Alright. First things first, we have to get this," he holds up the scope with the picture, "back to the Pentagon, right away. They gotta know what we're dealing with here." Epps nods, "I tried that. But my radio's fried. I got no communication with aerial."

Nodding, Will says, "Alright. Mahfouz, how far away are we from where you live?" The young boy points, "Not far. Just up that mountain." "And your dad. Does he have a phone?" "Yes." "Alright then. Let's hit it."

And as they begin heading in the direction Mahfouz pointed out, Epps glances at Will. "We never got a chance to talk after the yard got blown all to the hell. Did you talk to her?" "Yeah." "And?" Will sighs, "I didn't want to say any of it over a computer screen. Not when I thought we were gonna be home in a few days."

Epps sighs with him, and then says, "I just hope she's relying on the news, and not that hacker friend she said she had at one point." "Why?" "The news will say they don't know about survivors yet. But the hacker… well, he probably assumes there are none, based on reports he probably read coming from the camp. And if he told her that…"

Will shakes his head, "I can't even imagine. She'd be devastated." "I know." Silence for a moment, and then Will says, "Well… we just have to keep trying to keep our promise." "Which is what?" "That we're gonna do everything we can to get back home to her." "Right. But first, we get this information to the Pentagon." "Of course."

But Epps can tell from the look on Will's face that, just for a moment, he'd temporarily forgotten about informing the Pentagon of anything. It was important, that was unquestionable. But Harper…

She was priceless. And they all knew it. And at this point, if it somehow became possible for them to decide where to go next after this, no one was even going to argue if Will determined they were going to see her first. Not in the slightest.

But first things first. They had to make it out of this desert alive. Or all the rest of their planning was null and void anyway.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: "I do not own any part of the transformers franchise, or any of their characters. I own only Harper, and any original content that I make her do or say. Everything else is property of the amazing men and women who brought this story to life on the big screen. Thank you."

* * *

Chapter 4

"Harper!"

At the panicked sound of his voice over the phone, Harper sat up in bed so fast that she's surprised she didn't get whiplash. Throwing off the covers, she asks, "Sam? What's…" "My car is being stolen! I need you to head down to the tracks, ASAP! I'm in pursuit!" "Sam! What are you even following them in?!" "I'm on a bike, okay! Just… just get here!"

He hangs up after that, so Harper shoves her phone in her pocket and hurries to head out the door. Slipping on her tennis shoes, she tugs her jacket on over her tank top and hopes that her sweatpants will protect her against the heat of the bike engine well enough. Then she sprints down the stairs of her apartment complex, hops onto her bike in the parking lot, and cranks it up. Sighing, she says, "Alright. Let's see what you can do."

It takes off out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell. Cranking the speed, she cuts a sharp turn with ease, and smiles before saying, "You probably were worth thirty-five hundred. You ride smooth on everything. It's amazing."

But, of course, she might not have said that had she known her night was about to get just as weird as Sam's was. She was fine up until she got to the railway station yard. She passed through the already busted in gates, and was going to hop off to find Sam, wherever he was in this place.

The handles of her bike suddenly shifted forward, out of her grasp, and steered sharply to the left. And Harper would've fallen off, if not for the seat somehow shifting to tighten her more into the seat. Eyes wide as she holds onto the metal in front of her, she hisses, "What the fuck?!"

The bike drives itself around to the other side of the yard, and then comes to a stop. Harper feels the seat loosen, so she hops off instantly and scrambles back from the machine that had just come to life.

And now it was moving… but not the way a bike was supposed to move. All of the pieces began shifting and lifting and spreading out from one another, only to come back together in a completely different form. And that form…

Harper doesn't know what to call the thing she's looking at it. Where her bike had been seconds ago, now stood a piece of machinery that she decided should only exist in movies. It was, essentially, a robot. A heavily advanced robot. One that apparently had a mind of its own. No one was at the helm of it, operating it with controls. It was its own being.

And right now, it was staring down at her. Harper scrambles further back when it leans down closer, bending so its face was at her level. And then, it tilted its head at her, as though curious or confused by her nature.

Harper could've almost found it adorable, if not for the fact that she thought she had to be going insane. Then the robot held out its hand to her, making a motion that it wanted her to stay put. And as it walks away, Harper thinks about running, she really does. But there's a moment in which her legs still won't cooperate to help her stand back up.

And then… well, curiosity makes her step out to try and see where the thing had gone, and what it was doing. And low and behold, there it stood, side by side with another, slightly taller and buffer looking, robot.

A robot that has racing stripes down some of its yellow paint. That had to be Sam's car. Which meant that Sam's car wasn't stolen. It had driven itself here.

Harper briefly reminds herself that she sounds insane, even to her own mind. And she's looking directly at all of this shit, so she's not sure what else could be done to make it more believable. But it's just… it's too much. Too much stuff happening all at once. First her friends and the love of her life are gone, and now her new bike and her brother's new car are turning into robots.

She's losing her mind. That's what's happening.

Then the yellow robot shines a light up into the sky, a beacon with the emblem of some kind of face that reflects off of the clouds above them. The hard lines and edges of it, sort of resembled the look of the machines themselves. Maybe it was their calling card or something.

In which case, how many more could Harper expect to suddenly show up here? How many were here already? What the hell even were they?

And why was she worried about any of this, when it obviously couldn't be real? Right?

She was still pondering these questions, when her bike… if she could still call it that, returned to her and bent down to her level again. Staring at it for a moment, she finally says, "I've cracked. I've officially lost it. Will and his whole unit died, and in my spiral down towards depression, I'm losing my mind."

Harper shakes her head at herself, "And I thought I was doing so well. Shit." The robot tilts his head at her again, and then says… the thing actually speaks, "You are not crazy." The deep mechanical voice has a soothing tone to it, somehow. Harper tilts her head at it, and asks, "What even are you?"

Rising back to its full height, he says, "We will present answers to your questions tomorrow, when the others have arrived. For now, I will take you back home. You need rest." As it morphs back into her bike, Harper stares at it for a moment. Then it revs on its own, obviously encouraging her to hop on.

She huffs, "This is insane. A talking motorcycle says get on, and I'm about to listen." But… well, she was a long way from the apartment, and walking back would be a bitch. And… she wasn't afraid of this thing… this robot. Weirded out, absolutely. But afraid… no, not really.

As she settles on for a smooth ride home, letting herself be driven, rather than drive, she asks, "Can you at least tell me what to call you?" "I am called Dragonfly." Harper tilts her head at that, and then grins and says, "Cool. I like it." "I am glad."

When they get back home, before she goes inside, Dragonfly says, "Do not worry through the night, Harper Witwicky. I am here, and will protect you."

And in spite of how bizarre all of this was turning out to be… Harper found that it was easier to sleep, knowing that Dragonfly was outside, and that he was guarding her door.

Yep. She was definitely going insane. Perfect.

* * *

As Will and his team finally get over the mountain, he comments, "Let's hope this phone of theirs works." Epps nods while reaching into a well of water. Scooping some up, he pours it on his overheated face, sighing in relief.

That's when something from underneath the sand ripples around beneath them. It knocks over a giant tower stand meant to mark the location of the well from a distance. Epps shouts for everyone to take cover, and everyone except Donnelly moves. He's just lucky that the tower didn't hit him.

When he turns around after hearing the crash, he asks, "What was that?" And Fig, to his right, begins commenting in his rapid Spanish, which no one understands. Donnelly finally shakes his head, "English, dude. English."

Another argument was about to break out, Will could feel it. Even as he was scanning the area behind his men, trying to see what else might be out there. And he was about to shout out that, until they were with Harper again, who could always interpret for him, Fig needed to stick with English.

That's when Epps looks behind Will's back, and shouts, "WHOA!" All guns raise to shoot at the mechanical tail that dives back underground right next to where Will is standing. And in a desperate attempt to kill the thing, Will even begins shooting down towards his feet, hoping to hit it while it's still beneath him, before it can move somewhere else. But, faster than they could've anticipated, the machine then reappears behind one of the other men, who immediately begins shooting at his own feet to hit the damn thing. But none of their bullets appear to do any sort of damage to it at all. It dives back under the sand again with barely a scratch on it.

Then it comes up behind where Donnelly is standing, and impales him on the end of his tail, like a spear that was thrown perfectly through his body. As it lifts his body and swings him around victoriously, Will shouts, "MOVE, MOVE, MOVE! GET TO THE VILLAGE! LET'S GO!"

As they race for their lives to get to the village, the villagers see them approaching. The men grab what guns they have from their houses, while the women hurry themselves inside to be out of the way. As Mafhouz trips and hits the ground, Will picks him back up and shouts, "Let's go!"

Jumping the wall at the barrier of the village, Will turns to his men, "Cover fire! Fig, cover the rear! Epps! Cover the rear! Move it!" His men move into position as instructed, and Will drags Mafhouz along with him, asking, "Where's your papa?" "Papa!"

The man hurries to the door to greet his son, and then backs out of the way so Will can quickly step inside. And Will hates to break the two apart, he really does. But they have no time. Gripping the man's shoulder, he says, "Sir, I need… a telephone. Telephone?" He doesn't know the native tongue, but luckily, Mafhouz's father knows enough English to understand the word 'telephone'. He hurries into the next room where he keeps his, and explains, "Cell phone." "Perfect."

With the gunfire and mayhem happening all around him, Will then struggles to explain to the operator, "This is an emergency Pentagon call! I need you to… do you understand?! I need you to call the Pentagon! It's…"

The window behind him shatters from an impact made entirely too close to the house. Meanwhile, the operator explains to him that he has to have a credit card to charge for the call anyway. "I don't have a credit card!"

The man on the other end of the phone simply says, "Sir, the attitude is not going to speed things up any bit at all. I am going to ask you to speak into the mouth piece very clearly…" "I'm in the middle of a war! This is fucking ridiculous!"

Bolting from the house, dodging whatever it is that the monster in the sand keeps firing at them, he comes up on Epps. "I need a credit card! Epps! Where's your wallet?!" "Pocket!"

As Will scrambles around, he asks, "Which one?!" "My back pocket!" "You've got ten back pockets!" "Left cheek! Left cheek! Left cheek!" Hurriedly pulling out the wallet, then the card, Will shouts, "Alright, it's Visa!" He reads the number off to the man on the phone, who then offers him a premium package. "I don't want a fucking premium package! Put me through to the Pentagon!"

And finally, he gets a voice on the phone that asks who he is and what his status is. "This is Captain William Lennox of the United States Army Rangers. Me and some of my men are survivors from the attack on the base in Qatar. I'm going to put on my air force sergeant. We need air support yesterday!" Turning the corner of his wall to find Epps again, he says, "Epps! Pentagon!"

It takes him a bit after that… far longer than Will is comfortable with. But all things considered, their support is wrangled and ready pretty quick. It takes about two minutes, and then Epps shouts, "Lennox! We got heat incoming! Laser target assist needed!" "On it!" Running around to the other side, he shouts to his men, "Laze the target! We got a beam-rider incoming! Laze target!"

And as the gunships appear on the horizon, Lennox shouts, "Get ready! Heat's coming!" Epps shouts in turn, "Bring it!"

They hit it with rapid fire from the ship, and then four missiles are launched that hit the thing. But when the smoke clears, Will can't believe his eyes. It might finally be slightly wounded… but it was still moving. "No fucking way… that thing's still not down."

Epps, refusing to be deterred, says into the phone, "Spooky Three Two, use 105 shells. Bring the rain."

It still takes a minute for the shells to have any effect. And when the smoke clears this time, the creature isn't actually down. It's just gone. Only the end of its tail remains.

Will then looks around at his men. Donnelly, they already knew, was gone. But the rest of his men…

Turning sharply to Epps, he asks, "Where's Fig?" That's when Mafhouz comes running out, shouting for Lennox to hurry, and that his friend needs him.

Fig is lying on the ground, half buried beneath the rubble of one of the crumbling walls that had been shot down. Will drops his gun and shouts to Epps, "Get a medic!" Mafhouz and Will's men hurry to find the cleanest towels they can to press on the wounds while Epps hurries to round up a medevac for their friend. And it's still nearing sundown by the time it arrives.

But Fig is alive, and hopefully, he'll stay that way.

On the chopper ride home, Lennox asks if there's any sat phone they can use to call home with. But he got the expected response. Due to recent events they'd been involved in, they had to be debriefed before they could speak to anyone outside of the military.

Epps knows Will is worried about Harper. Ever since he'd brought up the idea that she already thought they were dead, Will had worried about what she might be thinking and going through. Patting his shoulder, he says, "She'll be alright, man. And hey, she might not even know."

But judging from the look on Will's face… he didn't believe that. Not one little bit.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: "I do not own any part of the transformers franchise, or any of their characters. I own only Harper, and any original content that I make her do or say. Everything else is property of the amazing men and women who brought this story to life on the big screen. Thank you."

* * *

Chapter 5

"Harper!"

She winces at the volume Sam uses to scream into the phone. Yesterday had been one thing. She'd been sleeping in, and should've already been up anyway. But at seven in the morning... on a Saturday? It was entirely too early for this shit. Sighing, she asks, "And good morning to you too, Sam. What's up?" "Good morning! My car is stalking me!" "Your car that stole itself?" "Yes! It's back, and now it's following me around town! Just… just get here! I'm at the abandoned parking garage! Hurry!"

Harper glances out her window at the parking lot. And sure enough, Dragonfly snaps his headlight on for a moment, before revving his own engine. A sign that he was ready to leave, and needed her to come with him. Nodding, she says into the phone, "I'm on my way Sam. Just… don't piss it off." "Piss it off! What the…"

She hangs up before he can say anymore, and then grabs her bag and throws her curly hair into a ponytail before heading out the door. Her jeans will definitely be better protection against the heat of the vehicle than her sweatpants from last night, though she still wears a black tank top. She hadn't felt like taking it off last night when she fell back into bed, and she certainly wasn't going to take the time to change it now.

The jacket she's wearing today though… that had been a present from Will and his unit. It was the deep kind of green all of them wore, soft and comfortable too. And on the insides of the jacket, they'd had their names sewn in, along with an oath of protection. "She We'll Defend."

The army motto was actually "This We'll Defend". Something they took seriously, and it was not a phrase they ever said lightly or playfully. The army is where Will had been before being promoted to captain of an Army Ranger unit. And for her jacket, the phrase was altered slightly to 'She' We'll Defend. And in their opinion, it was the most fitting thing to put on their Harper's jacket. Because that is how they all felt. She was a person they would defend. To their last dying breath, they would protect her.

Or… they would've… if they were still here.

Harper shakes her head to clear it. Even if they couldn't protect her anymore, or promise that they would… having the jacket still helped her feel close to them. She would keep it forever, no matter what else might happen to it.

Swinging her leg over Dragonfly, she asks, "Can you extend your handles back a little more so I can at least look like I'm driving?" "You should lean forward. We are going to be moving pretty fast. But fear not. No harm will come to you."

And she believes him, so she leans forward for the handles, and then says, "Alright. I assume you already know where we're going. Lead the way."

But even though they arrive at the parking garage in what Harper thinks is epic timing, they're still not fast enough to get there before Sam is under attack from…

Was it a police car? Yes, it was a police car that was shifting into one of these… whatever they were. Gritting her teeth in aggravation, she asks, "Is nothing sacred anymore? Now we can't even trust cop cars. Shit." Dragonfly revs to move faster, but rather than go further in, he veers sharply to the side, and circles around the garage.

As soon as he stops, Harper hops off with every intention of going after her brother. But Dragonfly, transforming quickly into his other form, grabs her in his large hand. "Patience." "Patience, my ass. They have Sam!" Dragonfly nods, but then says, "Bumblebee will protect him. I am here to protect you." "Then where the fuck is Bumblebee?" "Please. Patience. They can't hurt Sam. Not until they have what they want." "That means they can't kill him! That doesn't mean…"

But before she can get into that, Sam is thrown onto the hood of a car, and the cop car that's now standing demands, "Are you username LadiesMan217?!" Harper sighs at the ridiculous name Sam had chosen for his ebay profile. Then she watches him leap off the vehicle he was lying on, right before the cop car flips it over.

Dragonfly moves now, further in so they can see, but still in hiding. And Harper is about to lose her shit and just start screaming so maybe the cop car will have a different target to go after.

But finally, the yellow Camaro, who is apparently named Bumblebee, spins onto the scene. Burning rubber in a circle before the evil robot, he then throws open his door for Sam, and the girl who had shown up from out of nowhere. Harper's not really sure who she is… just that Sam insists she get in the car with him, so she must be rather important.

As soon as they take off, Dragonfly puts Harper down and shifts back into a bike. Swinging her leg over him again, she declares, "Do not ever do that to me again." "I am supposed to protect you." "Then protect me by helping me protect my brother! Do not ever hold me back again!"

Silence for a moment as they take off, and then Dragonfly answers, "I will do what I can to heed this request." "Good. Now, catch up to them. They're gonna need help." "Affirmative."

* * *

It's well into the dark hours of the evening before Dragonfly slows down inside the gates of a power station. Harper glances around, "I don't see them." "They are here. Bumblebee will do what he can to lose the cop before fighting him." "Why?" "We tend to cause a lot of damage to the area around us when we fight out battles. Your buildings do not sustain our force very well."

Harper sighs, "Yeah, well, I don't think we built anything with the intention of you guys ever coming here. No offense." "No offense is taken." As they continue slowly driving, Harper asks, "So… what do we do until they're done hiding?" "We wait." Sighing again, she explains, "I'm good at waiting for a cake to finish baking. Not so much on waiting for anything else."

A pause, and then Dragonfly asks, "What is a cake?" At that, Harper laughs before explaining, "We have a lot to talk about when we finally have a minute to not panic about what the hell else is happening. But, suffice to say, a cake is a desert. It's sweet and tasty, and people usually have them at birthday parties and such things."

When Dragonfly asks what a birthday is, Harper almost laughs again. But that's when Bumblebee zips from out of nowhere and into more open territory. And as he ejects Sam and his friend from the vehicle, Harper can guess well enough that the time has finally come to fight in order to protect Sam. The Camaro breaks apart and pieces itself back together into the form Harper had seen the night before. Fists up, ready to go as the cop car transforms as well.

It was apparent that Bumblebee took his job as protector just as seriously as Dragonfly did. The cop car tries to go through him to get to Sam… but Bumblebee just launches the thing over-top of himself, rolling him into one of the towers of the power plant.

One thing was certain, Harper wasn't going to have any power when she got home. If she went home after this. Something told her a lot more was coming after this than there had been after last night's events.

As Bumblebee then gets thrown into one of the other towers, Dragonfly begins shifting while Harper is still in the seat. But to her surprise, amidst all the shifting and changing, she somehow ends up in his hand, rather than simply ending up on the ground. He sits her down after that, and then says, "I must help Bumblebee. Stay safe." "I'll be with Sam." "That is not…"

At the look she got on her face, apparently a look that even a robot could understand, Dragonfly switches to say, "Be safe. I will return as soon as I can."

And as he takes off in the direction of the larger fight, Harper takes off in the direction her brother went. Which she considers to be a good thing, since another robot was chasing after him and his friend. A much smaller robot. This one was more the size of a normal human, rather than a skyscraper or small building.

The robot had already gotten hold of Sam's pants in an attempt to drag him away. But Sam kicked them off, and then continued hightailing it towards the fence at the bottom of the hill. Harper's not sure where his friend went, but if that girl just up and left him to fend for himself, Harper was not going to be thinking too kindly of her for very long.

As the creepy little robot kept Sam pinned against the fence, Harper ran up and yelled, "Get off him!" She slung her bag at his head, and while the little demon spawn was leaning back, she spun herself in a circle and roundhouse kicked him off of her little brother.

Not that it did much more than push him away. And Harper can't help staring at him in shock when the robot does some sort of fancy footwork with his mechanical legs before charging at them again. Shoving Sam to the side, she winces as it slams her up against the fence. It head-butts her twice, resulting in a blacked cheekbone and a cut at her temple. Sam grabs the thing from behind, trying to pull it off of her. But the thing wraps its mechanical hands around her throat and squeezes tightly to hold itself in place.

Harper's vision was honestly beginning to go blurry, even as she kicked the damn thing in the chest to shove it off. And as it and Sam fell to the ground, the girl that had been with them before came running back into action.

With a power saw in hand. Things for this girl were looking up. And as the robot launched itself back at Harper, the girl hacked off its arms, and then chopped of its head, effectively making the entire thing useless.

Mostly. Harper still has to pry off the metallic hands that went back for her throat. Sam hollers at the little monster, "Yeah? Not so tough without a head, now are you?!" While he kicks the head over the hill and out of sight, his friend drops the saw and helps Harper get the hands off her throat.

Once they hit the ground, she winces for Harper upon seeing the bruises that are already forming around her neck. But Harper simply takes a deep breath before saying, "Thanks. And you would be?" Still out of breath herself, she replies, "I'm… Mikaela. Um… Sam's friend." Sam nods a little too fervently in agreement with that statement, so Harper raises her eyebrow. But as they're all a little worse for wear right now, she decides to let that discussion be tabled for later.

Sam glances back to where the other fight had been taking place, and then says, "Come on." As Harper comes up to his side, he says, "Harp, you are not going to believe…" But then his eyes blow wide when Harper says, "That your car drove itself, turned itself into something else, and proceeded to beat the crap out of the cop car? Yeah, I believe that." "But… how?!"

And as they approach the area, she points at the green robot standing next to the yellow, "Because the smaller one is mine." "Your bike is a…"

As they look up at the robots for a second, Mikaela finally asks, "What are they?" Harper shrugs. Obviously, she's been saying that it's a robot in her head an awful lot. But… let's be real. It has to be more complicated than that. Right?

Sam, on the other hand, decides to stick with simple for now, and answers, "They're robots. But like a… like different… you know? Like super-advanced… robots." And then Harper can't help it. She lets out a laugh through her lips when Sam adds, "It's probably Japanese. Yeah… it's definitely Japanese."

Dragonfly begins making his way closer to the edge of the hill. And as Harper starts climbing to meet them, Mikaela asks, "What are you doing?" Harper shrugs, "Staying down here isn't doing us any good. They're not going to hurt us." "How are you so sure?"

Sam points out, "Well… I think they would've done that already." Harper nods, "Very astute observation, Sam. But, on a more direct note… mine told me it was here to protect me." "What?!" Harper just glances back at him with a raised eyebrow. "Keep an open mind, Sam. How many times have I told you that?" "You say that about trying something new you've cooked!" "Well, yeah. But it's also a motto that should be applied to all of life. Geez."

He worries for a moment about joining her. But, in the end… well, he didn't think they were going to hurt them either. Plus…

As Harper approaches her robot, she turns as Sam says, "I think they want something from me." Mikaela shakes her head, "What?!" "Well… cause the other one was talking about my ebay page." Nodding, Harper says, "Right. I remember that. You need a new username, by the way." "Remind me later."

Mikaela finally just throws up her hands, "You are the weirdest two people I've ever met." But she can't help smiling as Harper shrugs, "Yeah, but you get used to it. Don't worry, you'll learn to love me. Or, you'll just forever ignore me. In which case, don't expect any cupcakes for your birthday."

As Sam starts trying to communicate with his robot, who can apparently only talk through the radio, Harper gets to Dragonfly, who bends down to her height again. His head tilts from side to side, and his eyes actually send out a beam that seems to scan all of her injuries. Then, those blue eyes narrow somehow, as he says, "I told you to stay safe." "Yeah, I tried that. He would've hurt Sam." "Hurt, but not killed." "Neither of which is okay with me."

They stare each other down for a moment, and then finally Dragonfly gentles his gaze. Reaching out a finger to gently touch her chest, he says, "You have a great and brave heart, little one. It will serve you well." "It always has before." "Good."

She jumps a little when Bumblebee finally transforms back into a car, prompting Dragonfly to change back as well. And as she swings her leg over her bike, she can hear Sam ask Mikaela, "Fifty years from now, when you're looking back at your life, don't you wanna be able to say you had the guts to get in the car?"

And when she finally moves to climb in, Sam glances over the top of the car to see Harper. She smiles at him, points inside, and then mouths, "She's a keeper." Grinning, he hops in behind his 'friend'. And then they take off. To where, they have no idea.

But Harper can already tell. This already interesting night, was about to get a whole lot more interesting.

* * *

"Hey! What took you guys so long?"

And as Sam and Mikaela roll up closer in an incredibly upgraded looking Camaro, Harper adds, "And what happened to the car?" Sam hops out, "Never mind that. Did you see that asteroids?" "Yeah. Amazing. Also means we should be expecting at least four newcomers any minute. So, where…"

The semi-truck that begins pulling up into the alley answers her question. And they all can't help standing and staring as this one begins shifting apart and coming back together. It was taller still then even Bumblebee was, and Harper had already thought he was huge.

The other three come up from behind them, transforming as well into their robot forms. Bumblebee and Dragonfly follow suit, all eyes currently turned towards the larger blue and red robot, that had previously been a flaming semi.

As it bends down to their level, he eyes Sam first and asks, "Are you Samuel James Witwicky, descendent of Archibald Witwicky?"

The first thing that anyone says, is Mikaela saying breathlessly, "They know your name." Sam nods, and then finally answers, "Yeah." The robot then turns to Mikaela and asks, "And are you Harper Marie Witwicky?" Mikaela shakes her head fervently, while Harper gently holds up her hand and says, "That's me. Sorry."

The robot turns to her, and then says, "Apologies are mine. My name is Optimus Prime. We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron." Harper nods, still a bit thrown for the moment. Not really by the robot himself. She'd already accepted the other two as real, so having four more to add to the list wasn't a big leap. No… she was just really surprised that they already knew their names.

Then she jumps as one of the ones behind them, the one that had previously been an emergency response vehicle, says, "But you can call us Autobots for short." Harper nods to that, liking this one a little more already. He had a tender tone, though his voice wasn't as deep as Dragonfly's. But there was the same gentleness there that put her at ease.

Not like the other one, who appeared to be somewhat of a bad boy as he immediately asked, "What's cracking, little bitches?" She glares briefly at him, because that particular curse word has always been one she's hated. But before she can comment, Optimus introduces him as, "My first lieutenant. Designation, Jazz." Jazz then proceeds to look around, "This looks like a cool place to kick it."

As he promptly tosses himself back onto a car, Harper finally can't contain herself. Turning around to face him, she asks, "Excuse me! What were you, raised in a barn? Have some manners!" The robot actually jerks in surprise, and then glances around and asks in a slightly less irritating voice, "What'd I do?" Harper glares, "You're talking like an asshole, for one thing."

Jazz simply looks up at Optimus in confusion, who then looks down at Harper when she asks, "How did he even learn to talk like that?" To which Optimus answers simply, "We've learned earth's languages through the world wide web."

Then, to her surprise, Jazz comes around so he's in front of her and has her attention again. "I… didn't mean to offend. It was a very popular site I used to learn modern English slang. I…" Harper finally softens her gaze a bit, and then says, "Repeat the first sentence you said again." "What's cracking, little…" She cuts him off, "The last word you're about to say… don't ever use it again. I hate that word."

He nods affirmatively, and Harper thinks Optimus might actually be grinning a little at the entire interaction that just took place. Which... yeah, it was kind of hilarious. A five-foot-two human was telling a house sized robot to mind his manners. If Harper wasn't still trying to wrap her mind around all of this, she'd probably be laughing her ass off too.

But Optimus keeps his composure, and simply gestures to the black GMC that is spinning some of the guns he has in his hands. "My weapons specialist, Ironhide." To which the autobot holds out his guns and asks, "You feeling lucky, punk?"

Harper raises an eyebrow, but can't help laughing this time. Sam gives her a look and asks, "Really? Jazz can't say the word 'bitch', but this guy can threaten us with guns?" "He's not actually threatening us. He's quoting a Clint Eastwood movie. Not my favorite, but you can't really hate on someone quoting a classic."

Optimus just shakes his head in amusement, and then says to the still playfully advancing robot, "Easy, Ironhide." He backs up instantly, but then adds disappointedly, "Just kidding. I just wanted to show him my cannons."

Harper can't help laughing again, and then they look to the third autobot, whom Optimus introduces as, "Our medical officer, Ratchet." And to her never ending amusement, Ratchet sniffs at the air, literally just sniffs, and then says, "The boy's pheromone level suggests he wants to mate with the female. The brunette, not his sister."

As Sam and Mikaela both cringe a little at having that thrown out into the open, Optimus is about to go on and formerly introduce their own vehicles to them. But upon seeing the concerned look enter Ratchet's features, he instead asks, "What's wrong, Ratchet?"

The autobot moves to be in front of Harper, bending down to inspect her more closely. And she thinks he's probably looking at the bruises she's attained this night. But as he sniffs at the air again, he says aloud, "This one is in the midst of overcoming a small, but still rather severe, case of depression. She aches from it still."

Her heart gave a lurch at having that brought up again, and when Sam reaches out for her hand, she squeezes his tightly for a moment, taking in his silent support. Ratchet then moves away as Dragonfly bends down beside her. Eyes taking her in, she's surprised that she can already tell that he's asking her without words what has been troubling her so. But she does understand, and simply says, "Later. Please?"

He nods without question, and then stands back up and nods to Optimus. Their leader nods back and continues, "You two already know your guardians, Bumblebee and Dragonfly." Harper grins as Bumblebee plays some upbeat music from his stereo while he faux boxes in front of them. Dragonfly simply shakes his head, though Harper can see the amusement on his own face.

Sam can't help grinning, "Bumblebee, right?" When Optimus nods affirmatively, Sam then asks his car, "So you're my guardian, huh?" Bumblebee nods affirmatively, and then winces as Ratchet shines a red beam towards his throat. The medical officer explains, "His vocal processors were damaged in battle. I'm still working on them."

Harper touches her own throat, wincing at the soreness that still rests there. She feels Dragonfly's large hand at her back, worriedly resting against her. Turning slightly towards him, she whispers, "I'm alright."

Mikaela then asks, "Why are you guys here?"

Optimus then begins telling them the tale of his people, showing them through images that seem to overtake the very ground they stand on. How his planet was once a powerful empire, until a particular decepticon, Megatron, betrayed them. The war that followed consumed the whole planet, and the allspark, which gave life to their kind, was lost to the stars.

And apparently, through coincidence or fate, whichever you prefer to believe in… of all the places it could've landed, the allspark found its way to earth. Where Megatron followed it, and where their great, great, grandfather had found him buried in the Arctic snow. This is also when the location of the cube was then imprinted on the glasses that had been inherited by Sam.

Bewildered, Sam asks, "How did you know about the glasses?" Optimus simply replies, "Ebay." Sam is briefly just so incredibly thrilled by how they've learned so much in so short a time. But then they turn to Ratchet, who explains, "If the decepticons find the allspark, they will use its power to transform earth's machines and build a new army." And for emphasis, Optimus adds, "And the human race will be extinguished. Sam Witwicky, you hold the key to earth's survival."

As all of the autobots then stare down at them with baited breath, Mikaela says desperately, "Please tell me you have those glasses." Sam nods, but then looks to Harper and asks, "What do you think about all this?"

She shrugs, "I think these are the good guys, and we should help them." "Just like that." "Pretty much." "But…" He steps closer and whispers, "What about… what happened to Will? His unit? You don't think they…"

Harper shakes her head sharply, for two reasons. First of all, four of these guys had literally just gotten here thirty minutes ago. And secondly… well, she liked Bumblebee and Dragonfly. And they'd apparently been guarding the two of them for quite some time, not just the past couple of days.

Turning to look at Optimus though, she says, "There was an attack on an army base in Qatar not even a whole week ago. Something huge and massive took out the entire base, and left no survivors." There's a brief pause, and then Optimus says, "From what information I can gather, I can confirm it was not one of us. Most likely, it was a decepticon, already stationed here in search of the allspark." "And you're against them?" "Affirmative." "And if you find the one that took my friends from me, you'll kill him?"

A pause, and then Ratchet says, "This is the depression you suffer from. You have suffered a great loss." Annoyed, Harper says, "No shit." Back to Optimus, she asks, "Well?" "If we find him, and he fights, then yes, we will destroy him."

It wasn't exactly a firm yes… but it was a yes, nonetheless. Turning back to Sam, she says, "What are you waiting for? Let's go find them a pair of old, cracked, ancient as hell glasses. And while we're at it, let's save the world." Sam blinks at her, but then grins and asks again, "Just like that?" "Yep. Because I might be depressed, but I'm not in a particular mood to die any time soon. So saving the world we have to live on, will be a great start to that. Let's go."


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: "I do not own any part of the transformers franchise, or any of their characters. I own only Harper, and any original content that I make her do or say. Everything else is property of the amazing men and women who brought this story to life on the big screen. Thank you."

* * *

Chapter 6

"It's like a self-regenerating molecular armor."

Will glances up at the tech guy in front of him, but he's honestly not all too concerned about understanding what he just said about the mechanical tail that they'd managed to bring back from the desert. All he cares about, is he thinks he sees a definite way to get an advantage against any more of these things. Pointing out one of the punctures in the armor, he says, "Look at the scorch mark where the sabot round hit. Melted right through."

Turning to Epps, he asks, "Aren't sabots hot-loaded for, like… a six thousand degree magnesium burn?" Epps ponders that a second, "Close to it. It melts tank armor." Back to the tail, Will nods, "Right. So this metal skin must react to extreme heat."

He's no sooner said that, then the damn thing comes to life on the table in front of them. "Heads up!" Epps just barely moves out of the way in time to not get impaled the same way Donnelly had been. Glaring at it, he then looks to the tech, "I thought you said that thing was dead, man!"

As soon as it lays back down, Will grabs hold of one end and yells, "Strap it down! Strap it!" His other men and the techs work quickly to harness the thing down onto the table they were examining it on. Standing back, Will runs a hand through his hair, and then can't help letting out an exhilarated breath before saying, "This thing is wicked."

Calming down, he sighs and locks both hands behind his head briefly. Then he moves over to Epps so they can get a strategy going. "Alright. Get on the horn with Northern Command. Tell them that our effective weapon is high-heat sabot rounds. Recommend we load em' on all the gunships. Go."

Bobby moves to follow out his orders, but pauses when he sees Will run a hand through his hair worryingly again. Patting his friend on the back, he asks, "Hey, man. You doing okay?" Will nods, but at the knowing look on Bobby's face, he sighs again, "I just… I really need to talk to her." "Alright. So see if they've got a phone you can use now. We've been debriefed on the plane. Maybe they'll let you call out now." "And if she doesn't answer? It's late where she is right now." "Then leave her a message. Then at least she'll wake up and hear that we're not actually dead. Which, considering we're pretty sure she thinks we are, will be a pretty great thing to wake up to."

Nodding to that idea, Will heads to follow him towards the front of the plane. Epps grabs a phone to talk to Northern Command, and when Will doesn't seem to be making any progress on attaining a phone for himself, Epps ends his conversation and tells the officer waiting nearby, "One more quick call."

He drags Will to stand with him, dials the number, and then hands the phone over while whispering, "Just be quick, man. We can't afford to be court-marshalled for this shit right now."

Nodding, Will listens to the many rings on the phone, before it finally hits voicemail. And he knows it's probably stupid, but even just hearing her voice through that pre-recorded message gives him a sense of peace he's been missing the past couple of days. _"Hi, this is Harper. If you're calling to place an order, leave your name, number, and when you'd like it delivered by. And if you're calling to just talk to me, I'm so sorry I missed you. And I will definitely call you back. Love you, bye."_

He smiles at the last part, and then sighs as it beeps for him to start. "Harper? Hey… it's Will. Um… William Lennox. You, uh…" Sighing and wincing at this terrible start, he then says, "I know our last conversation didn't exactly end in a great way. But I'm calling you back, as promised. And… we might be a little delayed in getting home. But we are coming home, Harper. I promise. We…" He pauses again, and then says, "Donnelly… he didn't make it this last time. And I'll explain it more when we get back to you. But the rest of us are still here, and we are coming back to you. Okay? So… just know that. Alright?"

And because he still didn't want to declare his individual love for her over some machine, he instead says, "We love you, Harp. And we'll see you soon."

Hanging up, he glances over at Epps who raises an eyebrow before asking, "You still ain't going to tell the girl you love her?" "Not over a machine! God, she's not even there to hear it right now. She's probably sleeping."

Little did they know... that assumption couldn't be farther from the truth.

* * *

"Who did you lose?"

Harper sighs. She knows she told Dragonfly that she'd explain it better later. But… talking about it was still like tearing open a wound. It hurt almost as much, if not more, then when it had initially happened.

She was sitting backwards on the seat, laying with her head towards the handlebars. Dragonfly was somehow making the cushiony part of his body extend that far up for right now, so she could be comfortable. And, she realizes ironically, she's sitting in a position that therapists sometimes have their patients sit in, before they start talking.

Taking another breath, she says, "There was a unit that I wrote letters to. It started in high school, over eight years ago. I started with one, and he loved getting them so much, that he actually came to see me in person. I cooked for him, I did stuff for his family while he was away. And… after a while, he told me his other friends in the unit were jealous about his pen pal letters. So, I started writing to all of them. And then they all started coming to see me. And… we were just really good friends."

Fiddling with her fingers, she adds, "No one… well, Epps knew about it. But… I don't think even Sam knows… but… I was in love with one of them." Dragonfly's engine hums in a bit of a softer tone as he says, "I'm so sorry." "It's not your fault. His name was Will. William Lennox. He was a great soldier. Probably one of the best. He was actually Captain of the whole unit."

Smiling, she adds, "And he hated chicken and dumplings, until I made them for him. Then that became all he ever specifically asked for. Oh, and he used to do this thing, where when he was about to have a discussion, and he'd turn the volume of the radio almost all the way down, but not completely off. Oh! It used to drive me crazy! But I loved it, all at the same time. And the way he would smile at me… sometimes, it would make me feel like I was the most precious thing in the room."

She shakes herself, "I mean… I wasn't. Not to him, I don't think. But, he did care about me. They all did. They're… like the family I never got to have." "I thought you had a family." Harper shrugs, "I have Sam. But mom and dad always wanted a boy. Once he arrived, I was kind of always seen as second-rate. But Sam always loved me. And then I met Epps, and then the rest of the unit. And all of a sudden, I wasn't lonely anymore. I had a family."

Harper feels the seat wrap around her more fully, and Dragonfly says, "And that is why you hurt so greatly now that they are gone." Harper doesn't respond to that, but feels the cushions wrap around her even more before Dragonfly adds, "Please don't feel lonely, Harper. I can't ease the ache of your sadness. I cannot replace these men you've lost. Nor can I fill the void of the lost love. But, I can promise you this. I will never leave you, so you will never be lonely. I promise."

A tear leaks down from the corner of her eye, falling past her temple and into her curly red hair. Letting out a shaky breath, she finally says, "Thanks, Fly." "Fly?" "Yeah. It's a nickname. Is that alright?" A pause, and then he says happily, "Yes. I like it." "Awesome." "So, tell me more about this, William Lennox."

Harper laughed, and went into a little more detail about the love of her life. Though it was still sad that he was gone, it was nice to talk about him, and to be able to tell someone else about how great he was. She went on for another ten minutes.

And then the power on the entire street went out. Sighing, she asks, "What is going on?" The cushions around her shift up and down, and Harper grins before asking, "Did you just shrug?" "Yes." Laughing, she hops up so she can flip around in the seat, "Just get me there, please. Sam probably lost his bag. Which is probably just in the kitchen rather than in his room." "Copy."

As he drops her off at the front, Harper lets out a whistle at the state the yard is in. Optimus, from his position of 'hiding', looks down at her when she hisses, "You couldn't give him an actual five minutes." "Time is…" "Time is short! Yeah, I got that. But you do realize that while you've been distracting him, you've wasted more time, then if you would've just left him alone to find the damn glasses on his own in the first place!" Shaking her head, she adds, "And I thought I was impatient. Geez."

Making her way into the kitchen, she finds the bag and has it on the table just as everyone else is making their way downstairs from Sam's room. Upon seeing she has it, Sam sighs, "Thank God." She holds up the glasses for him to see, and then says, "Come on."

But Ron says, "Now, wait a minute. He just got here. And we need to discuss the fact that he had a girl in his room." "Would you prefer that he had a guy in his room?" Both parents pause at that, not really having a response. Harper rolls her eyes, and asks, "Sam?"

As he makes to follow her, Judy then demands of Harper, "So that's it? You haven't even come into this house at the same time that we've been here in almost five years, and you aren't even going to say hi?" Rolling her eyes again, Harper turns to them and says, "Hi. Bye." "Harper Marie!"

But before Harper can continue out the door, Sam jerks at his hair and shouts, "Enough! Alright?! What exactly do you expect from her?!" Judy blinks, "Well… I mean… something. We raised her, after all." "No, mom. You half raised her. Then I showed up, and you put everything into me. Harper could've flunked out of school, for all you guys cared. I know, I watched it growing up. She aced all her classes and ended up with a 4.3 GPA, and you still just glanced at her papers and went, 'Oh, good job honey, where's Sam?'"

Ron sighs, "Look, it's not that we weren't… proud. We just… she wants to cook for a living. I mean… who…" "Load of people, dad! Literally hundreds of people! And Harper's one of the best!"

Harper grips his arm in her hand, "Sam, it's alright. We need…" "No, it's not alright!" Back to his parents, he exclaims, "Do you even know why I'm not a rebelling teenager?! Huh?! Because let me tell you! You guys, make me want to break out of my room, almost every night! But I don't rebel. Because I have a safe place to go that doesn't require me to break any rules. And that's Harper's house! She's the only reason I'm actually sane!"

Judy puts a hand to her chest, still a little thrown by this outburst. But Ron says, "Son… I'm sorry, alright. But… still... a chef? I mean, she barely had the money she needed for her new bike. How well can she be…" "Dad! She had four-thousand saved for the bike! Specifically! Because everything else she has, is being saved up for the shop she intends to buy and open!"

Back to Harper, he asks, "Just another year, right?" Harper shrugs, "I mean… yeah. But Sam…" But this time its Judy who speaks, asking, "Really? Your… your own shop? You can…" Harper sighs before saying in annoyance, "Yes, I can afford it." "But… honey, why didn't you…" Sam throws up his hands, "Why would she tell you?! You were never proud of her before! Why is she supposed to expect differently now?!"

"Sam!" He jerks his attention back to Harper, who says, "We really have to go. Now." Nodding, he's about to head out with her, leaving his bewildered parents in the living room. But just as they're about to open the door, the bell rings.

And rings. And continues to ring. Harper actually jumps back and to the side as the mail flap flies open, revealing a man's peering eyes as he looks into the room to see who's coming. Pushing Sam towards the kitchen, she says, "And now we really need to go. Worse than before." "Why?" "I don't know! But having a weirdo at the door, peeking through the mail slot, can't be a good thing."

Ron glances at the three of them before moving to the door himself. Opening it to the man in the suit, he's about to ask who it is, when the man beats him to it and asks, "Ronald Wickity?" "It's Witwicky. Who are you?" "We're the government. Sector Seven." He flashes a badge as proof, but Ron still says, "Never heard of it." "Never will."

Stowing his badge away, he proceeds, "Your son's the great-grandson of Captain Archibald Wickity, is he not?" "It's Witwicky." But the man ignores the continued correction of the name he keeps mispronouncing, and asks, "May I enter the premises, sir?"

Before Ron can decide whether to refuse or not, Judy exclaims, "Ron, there's guys all over the front yard."

Whether invited in or not, he and several other men in suits make their way through the door as Ron asks, "What the heck is going on here?" "Your son filed a stolen car report last night. We think it's involved in a national security matter." "National security?"

While Judy complains about the rose bushes being torn apart, Harper tries to guide Sam and Harper out the back doors. But these men are, literally, crawling all over the property. "Shit!" As they hurry back into the house, Harper hoping to aim for the stairs, the flashlights finally land on them. The main guy, tossing a bat he'd found to one of his other men, smiles and asks, "Hey, son! Your name Sam?"

Sam glances at Harper, but with really no chance in denying it successfully, he says, "Uh… yeah." "Well, I'm gonna need you to come with us."

It was a rare moment in which Harper is thankful for the overprotectiveness their parents have for Sam. This Sector Seven man had not even managed to take one step, before Ron and Judy were both standing protectively in front of Sam. Ron declares, "Whoa, way out of line."

It doesn't do much, but Harper is still glad Ron and Judy are the front line now. But the man still approaches, "Sir, I am asking politely. Back off." "You're not taking my son." "Really? You gonna try and get rough with us?"

Before Ron can answer, both he and Judy jump in surprise when Harper says through her teeth, "Do not tempt me." The man tilts his head at her, but then looks to Ron again when he declares he's going to call the cops about all of this. But the man just comes back with, "Yeah, well, there's something fishy about you, your son, that red-head, your little taco-bell dog, and this whole operation you got going on here."

As Ron and the man go back to their verbal argument, Sam tugs at Harper's elbow and asks, "Any ideas?" "Our best bet, at this moment, is to run upstairs, don't think twice, and jump from my old room, onto the balcony of the house next door." When Sam looks at her like she's lost it, she shrugs, "I've done it before. Worst case scenario, we land in the pool. And since we can all swim, I'll take that bet."

But before she can start inching them that way, she hears one of the men tell the head guy, "I think… direct contact." And that pulls the man's attention directly back to them, so no chance of slipping away at all. "Son? Step forward please."

And Sam would have… he really would've. Just to speed things along, and maybe try to go through with Harper's plan. But before he could move an inch, Harper was in front of him. Glaring at this government agent, from an organization that she'd never heard of in her life, she states slowly, "Over. My. Dead. Body."

But as it turns out, he didn't need Sam. The man had the machine on already, and as the wand swept over her body, it lit up like a Christmas tree. Eyes widening, the man reads his monitor and says, "Fourteen rads?" He ponders it a moment more, and then declares with glee, "Bingo! Tag em' and bag em'!"

Harper's initial instinct was the fight back. Getting herself out of this situation would not the problem. The stairs weren't that far away, and there were only two men with reaching distance of her. Take them out with a few swift kicks, and she could get away on her own in a split second.

But with Sam and Mikaela with her… she needed more strategy to this than that. And at this moment, she wasn't going to be able to free herself, and them, and then get them all out. If the army unit was in here, then maybe. But that was because every man would've already known what to do, who to take out, and where to go to make the quickest escape in this situation. But in this particular party, Harper was the only one who was attempting to calculate all of that, so it would not work.

So for the moment, after giving a reassuring glance to her brother, she allows herself to be cuffed, and then dragged out towards the black SUVs these men are driving.

* * *

As two of the cars break away in a different direction, escorting their parents to some unknown place, the leader that is with them in this particular car says, "So… LadiesMan217. That is your ebay username, is it not?" Mikaela gives Sam a funny look, but Sam just says, "I mean… yeah, but it was a typo, and I ran with it." The man looks skeptical, until Harper says, "It's true. He got really distracted while he was making it."

The man just glances between all three of them, and then holds up Sam's phone, "So… LadiesMan. What do you make of this?" And as he plays the recorded message that Sam had made, talking about how his car had transformed and turned into a robot, Sam flounders for a moment. Grinning, the man asks, "That sound like you?"

Mikaela, glancing at Harper, says, "Yeah, that sounds like LadiesMan." And Harper would've liked to deny it. But there wasn't any solid way to do that without making it sound like they were obviously lying.

Snapping the phone closed, the man explains, "Last night at the station, you told the officer that your car transformed." Casting his eyes between all three, he says, "Enlighten me." Harper glares at him, but then turns to Sam as he scrambles about, saying, "Well, here's what I said, okay? Because… this is a total misunderstanding. Because what I said, was that my car had been stolen." "Really?" "Yes! From me, from my home. But it's fine now, because it's back! It came back!"

Mikaela and Harper both give him a look, and then Mikaela adds, "Not by itself, obviously." Sam nods, "Well, no!" "Right. Because cars don't do that. Because that would be crazy." She laughs, prompting everyone to laugh with her. But Harper isn't falling for it, not for a second.

The man cuts his laugh short, right on cue with Harper's thinking, and asks instantly, "So what do you kids know about aliens, huh?" Tilting her head, Harper asks, "You mean like that Martian off Looney Tunes?" Sam nods, rolling with it, and asks, "Or E.T.? Ha! No." Mikaela nods, "Yeah, it's an urban legend."

Glaring at them now, the man pulls out his badge and says, "You see this? This is an 'I can do whatever I want and get away with it' badge. And I'm gonna lock you up, forever!" And Sam actually looks terrified for all of a second. But then Mikaela says, "Oh, God. You know what, don't listen to him. He's just pissy because he's gotta get back to guarding the mall."

And then she grins when Harper snaps her fingers from behind her back and says, "That's where I saw that badge! It was in one of the prank toy shops! God, thank you! That was gonna bug me all night." Mikaela nods her welcome, but then they both turn back to the man as he speaks. "You, in the training bra." He points to Mikaela, and then looks to Harper. "And you, with the curly hair from hell. Do not test me."

Back to Mikaela, he adds, "And you, especially, with your daddy's parole coming up." Mikaela leans back in shock, while Sam shouts, "What? Parole?" He would've gone on, but Harper elbowed him and hissed, "Cool it." Mikaela looks at her imploringly, "It's nothing."

But the man in the suit declares, "Oh, grand theft auto, that ain't nothing?" And then he goes back to glaring when Harper shrugs, "It's a video game. I'm not very good, but you should give it a try. You look like you'd be great at it." Mikaela then looks to Sam and explains, "You know those cars my dad used to teach me to fix? Well… they… weren't always his."

Harper waits for their discussion going on across from her to finish, glaring at the man in the suit all the way. And he must've seen, at least for a moment, the very real threat in her eyes, because he paused long enough for Mikaela and Sam to actually talk for a few minutes. But then he snapped back into his role and hissed out, "She's got her own juvie record to prove it! She's a criminal! Criminals are hot."

Harper could've let it go at that, she really could've. But then he went on to say, "Oh, it'd be a real shame if he had to rot in jail for the rest of his life. It's time to…"

The machine that apparently picked up on alien radiation… or whatever it was it picked up on, was starting to go haywire. So Harper knew it was only a matter of seconds before they were going to be busted out of this. Which meant she had just enough time for…

She slammed her head forward. Hard. And then she couldn't help smirking when she heard the crunch of the man's nose beneath her skull. She hit him so hard, that he flew forward towards the dash of the car. And before he can comment or do anything, even before his driver can do anything, a giant mechanical foot stomps down in front of the vehicle.

As everyone then comes to a screeching halt, two giant hands reach down and break inside to grip the roof of the car they're in. Sam freaks for a second, but then follows Harper's lead, who puts her feet against the seat in front of her, and pushes back hard so she stays in place as much as possible.

When the roof comes off, they hit the ground with a thud, but with much less of a shake then they would've if they hadn't been so braced. And then the blindingly bright light from above them cuts off, and everyone looks up at the autobot standing before them.

Harper grins while Sam says, "Oh, you A-holes are in trouble now. Gentlemen, I want to introduce you to our friend. Optimus Prime." The leader of the autobots then explains, "Taking the children, was a bad move."

Every gun in the area turns to aim towards his huge metal form, and Harper scoffs, "Okay, yeah, because that's actually going to do anything to him." Optimus seems to grin at her again, and then says, "Autobots, relieve them of their weapons." The resounding thuds that follow show that the others are all landing behind them. Jazz uses some sort of magnetized thing from his hand that pulls all of the weapons out of the hands of the Sector Seven agents.

As Optimus bends down to face the two men in the car with them, the leader lets out a slightly surprised, if not still pained from his broken nose, "Hi." Optimus narrows his eyes, "You don't seem afraid. Are you not surprised to see us?"

Still thrown, the man does manage to say, "Look… there are S-Seven protocols, okay? I'm not authorized to communicate with you, except to tell you that I… can't communicate with you." Glaring, Optimus says, "Get out of the car." "Alright. Me? You want…" "Now!" "Alright, alright. Hey, getting out. We're getting out."

As everyone begins moving, Mikaela comes up behind Harper and immediately begins unlocking the cuffs. Smirking, Harper says to a wide-eyed Sam, "I say again. She's a keeper." Mikaela grins a bit at that, but then slumps and says, "You guys… weren't supposed to hear all that. I… I only have a record, because I wouldn't turn my dad in. I… I just…"

Sam briefly looks like he doesn't know what to do, even though his hands are now uncuffed as well. Harper rolls her eyes, nudges him, and then whispers, "This is the part where you comfort her, before she begins to think that you think badly of her. Hug her, you big dummy."

While he does that, Harper marches over to the man in charge and demands, "What is Sector Seven?" Upon not getting a response, she smirks, "I already broke your nose. Would you like to see what else I can break?" "Look here, little miss! I'm the one who asks questions around here. Not you!"

Coming up behind her, Mikaela asks, "How'd you know about the aliens?" And then Sam adds, "Where'd you take my parents?" Glaring at all of them, the man says, "I am not at liberty to discuss it." Harper raises an eyebrow, "No?"

Yanking at his suit pocket, she ignores his threat on the fact that she was clearly committing a federal offense. She was past caring at this point. Taking his badge out, she holds it up and repeats, "Do whatever you want and get away with it badge. Right?" The man just glares harder, "Yeah. Brave now all of a sudden, with your big alien friends standing over there."

As Harper flips through the wallet, Sam asks, "Where is Sector Seven?" "Wouldn't you like to know?" And as Harper continues flipping through the contents of the wallet, only finding the name Simmons to go by, she then grins when she hears liquid suddenly being poured on the man's head, and Optimus says, "Bumblebee, stop lubricating the man. Dragonfly, put the gun away. Tend to your charge."

As Mikaela and Sam move to handle handcuffing and trapping the rest, Dragonfly does pull Harper aside to check her out. Raising an eyebrow at his inquisitive stare, she asks, "What?" "You do not appear hurt, but there is blood on the top of your hair?" She wipes at that, "Yeah, well, that would be from when I broke Simmons' nose." Dragonfly shakes his head, and then Harper asks, "Seriously, what is it? You aren't worried about Sam or Mikaela?" "We are. But you have already proven that you are more prone to injury then they are. So, we are more concerned with you." "I'm fine."

He just reaches out to touch her chest again, and then says gently, "You are brave, little one." "So I'm told." She grins up at him, and then glances back when Sam says, "Alright. We're ready to go."

And, of course, that is also when all hell breaks loose. Again!


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: "I do not own any part of the transformers franchise, or any of their characters. I own only Harper, and any original content that I make her do or say. Everything else is property of the amazing men and women who brought this story to life on the big screen. Thank you."

* * *

Chapter 7

The scariest part of the whole hide-and-seek game that followed, wasn't even the danger of possibly being found while it was taking place. It wasn't the heights in which Optimus held them while they were avoiding the choppers. It wasn't even the fall towards the concrete ground that definitely would've killed them all.

The scariest part, was watching Dragonfly get taken down by the giant straps these men used on him.

As they'd been falling, Harper had managed to push Sam out beyond Optimus' large foot. She knows he meant for it to break their fall… but it's a giant ass metal foot. And as her side slammed into it, she figures it probably does more harm than good. He was being thoughtful, she knows that. He just doesn't have an actual understanding yet of just how fragile humans were physically.

Bumblebee swooped in and caught Mikaela and Sam from the rest of their fall. And as Harper continued plummeting towards the ground after taking that hard hit, she suddenly found herself cradled against a green metal chest within two large hands.

They tumbled across the concrete for a moment before Dragonfly was able to bring them to a stop. Harper winces at the pain in her right side, but then smiles up at Dragonfly and says, "Nice catch."

His grin at her is short-lived. Because the next sound they hear is Bumblebee's grunt of pain as a net cannon clamps down over one of his hands. Dragonfly quickly puts Harper down with Sam and Mikaela, trying to help his brother-in-arms break free.

But it's no good. As soon as they have enough hooks into Bee, they start firing at Fly as well. They jerk and trip and take both autobots to the ground.

Harper knows they're stronger than this. They could've easily pulled the helicopters out of the air before letting themselves get taken. But they weren't. Not even as the officers on the ground began arriving, tazing them and firing the freezing gas at them to try and immobilize them. They don't try to fight back, because they know fighting at this point would cause more harm then good for the humans.

Humans that were showing almost little-to-no humanity right now.

Sam and Mikaela get taken to the ground almost right away… but Harper is much more volatile, and harder to detain. Sam hadn't honestly ever seen his sister fight since her army unit had begun teaching her how. He knew they were, but he hadn't actually seen her use any of it.

She broke one man's nose instantly, cracked another's knee with a swift kick, and then bolted like a bat out of hell towards her bike. "FLY!" His eyes were a mix of pain and concern. He clearly wanted her to get out of here, away from what was happening to him. But he was in so much pain. He was hurting.

And he couldn't help but feel touched when she came up behind one of the men and quickly cracked his skull against the pavement. He'd be fine, but he'd certainly have a headache when he woke up. Harper then moved to one of the men with the freezing guns, jerking it from his hands and turning it on him.

It was at that point that the men realized who was really going to be the hardest to capture in the group. Harper. Guns were raised and threats thrown, but she never stopped moving. She came at them with her own new weapon that she'd taken from the other man, broke someone else's arm when he got too close, and would've continued on from there.

Then a tazer stabbed into her left side. A tazer meant for taking down an autobot… not a human being. She heard Sam scream as she was literally thrown to the side from the force of the jolt hitting her body. She heard Dragonfly wail in agony.

She also managed to hear one of the men in uniform yell, "What the fuck, man?! Did you even dial it down! Shit! What if you killed her?!"

What if he had? Was she dying? She felt like she was dying? Every single bone and muscle in her body now ached, and she somehow felt like she was both numb, and yet on fire at the same time.

Finally, though she's not sure whether she's grateful about it or not, she passes out, her world fading into black. Her last thought being… that they'd better hope she was dying. Because if she woke up from this…

Well, let's just say anyone that got in her way from getting her bike back was not going to be shown any sort of mercy.

* * *

They were finally stateside. Thank God for that. And as Will and his team began heading for their vehicles, they agreed to reconvene at the exit gates so they could basically drive like an army parade all the way to Harper's house. Their families were obviously important too, but their families didn't already think they were dead. And most likely, Harper did.

Epps slaps Will on the shoulder, "Finally gonna see her again! What you gonna say?" "Still have no idea. At this point, I think I'd just be happy to hold her." "Aw, you're so cute." "Oh, shut up!"

He was about to punch his friend in the shoulder playfully, when three black SUVs came rolling up to them at high speed. And as all doors open, one of the men rushes out and shouts, "Captain Lennox, we need you and your team to come with us right now!" And Will's about to ask what it's about, but the man simply grabs one of his bags from him and says, "Let's go!"

Will and Epps look at each other, and then Will curses under his breath before shouting, "Guys!" The ones who had been heading for a different hanger stop and turn back. Still fuming, he shouts, "Change of plans! Again!"

Climbing into the vehicle, Epps on his left, Will just shakes his head as Bobby says, "Easy, man. We'll get to her." "Yeah? When? Because every five minutes, something else happens that makes it impossible for us to go home." Epps raises an eyebrow, "You mean to Harper. Right?"

And he can't help grinning when Will says simply, "Harper is home."

* * *

At the Hoover dam, with everyone dressed in their best once more, as the Secretary of Defense walks up, Lennox calls out, "Team attention! Present arms!" They all salute the man who was responsible for bringing them here. Much as they may want to be elsewhere, they knew this was important.

Not necessarily more important than seeing Harper again. But important, nonetheless.

John Keller, the Secretary, has them stand at ease almost immediately. Approaching Will and Epps, he says, "Captain. Sergeant. Got your intel. Excellent work." Will nods, "Thank you, sir. What about the gunships?" "They are being retrofitted with sabot rounds now. If they hit us again, we'll be ready for them."

Then he sighs and adds, "But… it won't do us much good if we can't get world communications back up."

Meanwhile, further up the bridge, Sam and Mikaela are led up to Agent Simmons again. With a much calmer tone, he says, "Hey, kid. I think we got off to a bad start, huh?" Putting his hand on Sam's shoulder, he says, "You want a latte? HoHo? Double venti macchiato?"

Sam just shoves his hand off and asks, "Where's my sister, and where's my car?"

A new man steps up to them, and says, "Son, I need you to listen to me, very carefully. People could die here. We need to know everything you know, and we need to know it now." Sam shrugs, "Okay."

And then the men grit their teeth when he says, "But first I'll take my sister, my car, my parents, whatever the hell you did with them. You know, you might wanna write all this down. Oh! And Mikaela's juvie record. That's gotta be gone. Like, forever."

Simmons just stares at him from behind his shades, but the other man says, "Come with me. We'll talk about your car. And as for your sister, the hit she sustained from the tazer knocked her unconscious. I honestly don't know how she's still alive. Could have something to do with how much interaction you've had with the aliens. But currently, she's in one of our treatment facilities, until she wakes up. Then we'll have to see what her condition is after that."

* * *

When Harper wakes up, she's in a white room that has the lights dimmed to a much more manageable degree of brightness. Which she's grateful for… but it's still entirely too bright. Blinking into it, she turns her head to get a better view of her surroundings. The room has one door, with a coat rack near it for medical coats. A sink on the far side. The bed she's on and the monitor she's attached to are the only other things in here.

Well… and the plastic zip-ties that are securing her ankles and wrists to the bed. Plus the nurse who is apparently in here as well. She stands up from her chair upon realizing Harper's awake. Her smile is genuinely sweet when she says, "Hello, dear. How are you feeling?"

Harper tugs at her restraints in response, to which the woman says, "Yes, we're sorry about that. But we weren't sure how you would be when you first woke up. Rest assured, those will come off soon. We just need you to cooperate for a little bit longer. Can't have you running off before we've run some tests. You had quite a shock to your system."

Harper ponders all of that for a moment, and then nods, "Yeah. Guess so." Her voice was a bit croaky. Good. That made her seem weaker than she was. Feeling for the sleeve of her jacket, Harper holds back a grin when she realizes they left her in it. Then she winces on purpose and asks pitifully, "Can I… have a glass of water?" "Of course, dear!"

As soon as the woman turns her back, Harper finds the secret pocket in her left sleeve, where a pocketknife rests. Her unit of army men had thought of everything when making this for her. She flips it open quickly, and slices through the strap at her wrist in a split second. By the time the lady even starts running the water to fill the glass, Harper has her ankles freed, and her other wrist.

And when the lady turns back to the bed, the monitor is suddenly letting out that steady beep sound that signals someone is dead. But in this case, it's because the patient is no longer hooked to the machine.

The nurse runs out of the room, hitting an alarm to signal a security breach. Then she sprints down the hall in search of the patient she'd just lost. She passes guards and other doctors and nurses on the way.

She misses the fact that one nurse with particularly red and curly hair, doesn't actually belong there. Harper had grabbed the spare medical coat and was now walking down the hall with ease, trying to make herself blend in. Which, was a little hard to do. She still had bruises on her neck and cheek, a cut to her temple, and she's pretty sure her skin must look a little like she'd been cooked too long in an oven.

When she finally finds a bathroom though, she decides it could be worse. With the coat on, and if she turned up the collar and kept her head down, she could blend in. At least until she found Sam and their vehicles. Then they could get the hell out of here, and help find the allspark. Hopefully, Optimus was already on his way to find the damn thing. But they would eagerly send Dragonfly and Bumblebee on their way to help. Anything to get their protectors out of this God-forsaken place.

Harper suspects the car and bike won't be leaving without them, no matter what the cost might be to themselves. But she'll worry about that later. First, she had to find any of them in this… whatever the hell this place actually was.

* * *

It was when she finally managed to swipe someone's access badge that she really started getting places. So long as she didn't look like she thought she was in a place she wasn't supposed to be, no one even so much as looked up when she came into the room. But there was still entirely too much space to cover in this place.

It takes her the better part of the next thirty minutes, she's disappointed to admit. But she finally finds her way into another large room, where a robot is being kept on ice. Not her robot, and not Sam's either. But at least this made her feel like she was more on the right track. Perhaps if she went just a few more rooms over, she'd…

That's when she hears Sam's voice say, "Sir, I hate to correct you on everything you think you know. But that's Megatron. He's the leader of the Decepticons."

There's a new man that Harper has never seen before showing them around. Still a member of Sector Seven, obviously. But, as she hurries over to hide behind some transport vans that are behind them, Harper decides she likes this man. He doesn't seem all that offended by Sam correcting him. In fact, he looks more pleased by it than anything else.

He was a smart man, hungry for knowledge. He wanted to know what he didn't know. And if something he thought he knew wasn't correct, he wanted to know that too.

Simmons, on the other hand, got in Sam's face, correcting him about the name of the creature held in a block of ice. NBE-One? Seriously? What does NBE even mean?

Harper knows she must've missed something. But that'll have to wait for later too. Because right now, the Secretary of Defense, whom she'd never had the privilege to see in person before, asks, "And you didn't think the United States military might need to know that you're keeping a hostile alien robot frozen in the basement?"

Oh yeah. Harper definitely likes him. And she likes the new S-Seven man a little less when he makes up the excuse that, until now, there had been no credible threat to national security. To which John Keller says in frustration, "Well, you got one now!"

Harper ducks down as someone walks past on the other side of the vehicles she's hiding behind, which are all lined up and positioned between where she is and the group that's being shown around the facility. And then her knees buckle out from under her and she gasps when she hears Will's voice ask, "So, why earth?"

The conversation around her keeps going on as though nothing had changed. But Harper doesn't think she's ever heard a more beautiful sound in all her life. Peeking over the hood of this transport van, she sees the back of Will's head, and then the side of his face when he and his men turn to look at Sam, who is answering the question.

They were alive. They were alive!

Sam briefly explains that the allspark is why Megatron and everyone else is here. But when John Keller asks him for more information, Sam simply turns his attention to Will.

When the two groups had finally met up, Sam had felt the entire unit turn their attention to him. And they hadn't found a moment to talk or address each other yet, but the question that had come across all of their faces in that moment had been crystal clear.

Where was Harper?

And frankly, Sam was tired of not knowing the answer to that either. So with a firm stare at Will, firmer than he'd ever tried to be with any of those military men, he says, "I'm not answering anymore questions until I see my sister." And at Will's knowing look, Sam feels relieved that the captain of Harper's army unit understands. Harper had indeed been with him, but something had happened to separate them. And Sam was going to need their help, if they wanted to get her back before anything else terrible could happen to her.

Simmons, completely unaware of the silent communication between the two groups, grits his teeth, "You with the sister. We told you, she's…" Sam glares at him, "Yeah, but I haven't seen her yet. And since you shot 1.21 gigawatts of electricity through her body, I want to actually see that she's alive before I say anything else."

Simmons is about to yell at him, declaring that Sam didn't get to call the shots. But then he jumps when Will shouts, "Hey!" All eyes turn to him, but Will simply glares at Simmons like he's the devil-incarnate. And all the anger was very much real in this case. He hadn't actually intended to yell or threaten anyone in order to help Sam find Harper. But upon hearing Sam explain that she'd basically been electrocuted, he demands in a dangerous tone of voice, "Take us to Harper. Now."

"Harper?" Now they all look at the black guy who had come in with the other cybertech analyst. He looked between the army unit, and then Sam, before his eyes blew open wide. "OH MY GOD! You're Sam! You're Sam Witwicky!" Sam nods in confusion, "Um… yeah." "I'm Glen!"

Sam ponders that a moment, and then snaps his finger, "Right! The hacker Harper sends boxes too." "Yes! My baking angel from heaven!" Then he looks to Will and his unit, "And you guys were in Qatar! The reason she asked me to spy on what was happening over there!"

Will and Epps just look at each other, having figured as much by now. And in confirmation of their fears, Glen settles down a bit as he admits, "Oh my God! She thinks you guys are dead. Oh… Oh, my bad. I swear, I went through, like, seven different sites and articles before I told her anything. I…"

Will waves a hand at him to tell him to calm down. Then he turns back to Simmons, "Where is Harper?" Glaring at everyone, Simmons says to Sam, "Look, your big sister isn't going anywhere. She is strapped down, to a table, and will stay there until we've run our tests. And you can just shut it, and…"

The wrench that suddenly smacked him in the head knocks him off his feet. Crashing into the floor, he demands, "Who did that?!" Sam is glancing around, wondering the same thing, as is everyone else. Then, as someone else finally comes in the main door, he spots Harper bent down behind the vehicles. She was snickering, unable to help it, since she was the one who threw the wrench that hit it's target dead on. But she jerked to attention again as the man in the doorway shouts, "Hey! What are you doing?!"

Harper glances at him briefly, and then simply utters, "Shit!" The man hollers up at the guards to get the hell down and detain her. Harper takes off towards the other door in this place. She would circle back for Sam in a minute or two. But before she can get out, the giant door she's heading for opens to reveal three other men running in after her. Along with the nurse who had actually lost her in the first place.

Backtracking, Harper roundhouse kicks the one scientist who had first spotted her, and then runs back towards where she'd been hiding initially. Someone grabs at her lab coat, even while she hears Keller shouting, "Stop! Let her go!"

The man who thought he finally had her didn't listen at first. Not that Harper needed him to. She slid her arms out of the coat easily and continued running, leaving the man with a bewildered expression on his face when he realized he was only holding a piece of material, and not the girl like he'd intended.

Back to the vehicles she'd been hiding behind, she then backs up two steps, and then runs towards them, sliding down underneath the two hoods that are facing each other and vanishing out of sight.

And when Will finally sees her, she comes out the other side, crouched on the ground, glaring at the men trying to follow after her. She was prepared to fight, prepared to take them all on.

And she looked tired as fuck, in spite of how very much awake she had to be. Holy hell, what had happened to her?

Keller finally shouts for all to hear, "ENOUGH!" Everyone ceases moving at that. Everyone… except Will, his unit, and Sam.

Will gets to her first, which Harper is honestly so thankful for. His arms reach down to wrap underneath hers, and she lets herself slump against him. Arms encircling his shoulders, she buries her face in his neck, and for a moment she just breathes him in.

Then she starts crying. Will smooths his hand up and down her back, trying to soothe her weariness. But she just gasps in his ear, "I thought you were dead. I thought you were all…" She can't finish it a second time. Instead she just clings to him tighter, wrapping her legs around his waist and locking herself in place.

She feels the rest of the team, what's left of them, coming up and patting her shoulders. She reaches out for them with one hand, giving Bobby's a particularly hard squeeze in return when he clasps his hand in hers. But she never lets go of Will.

Consequently, he doesn't seem inclined to let go of her. His hot breath comes heavily against the curve of her neck, and she doesn't think anything has ever felt so good in her whole life. His strong arms are locked around her even tighter than her legs are locked around him. And when she feels his lips press a gentle kiss against her skin…

Will feels her grip on him tighten as she trembles, though whether in relief or from another sensation entirely, he's not sure. He just knows it feels so good to hold her again.

Sam smiles wide at the sight of his sister surrounded by these men. He knew he wasn't anywhere near prepared enough or trained enough to help take care of his sister the way she needed right now. She'd been taking care of him through all of this, helping him stay calm and maintain his sanity throughout. She'd tried to protect him whenever she'd been able, and she had bruises to prove it. And he wasn't able to do that for her. He just… he wasn't prepared.

But these guys… they would make sure nothing else touched her again, as long as she was in their sights.

As though to prove that statement, when Simmons marches up as though about to give an order concerning Harper's being here, Will takes a step back and says to his men, "Circle up." The protective circle, the wall of green that forms around them, draws Simmons up short. Sector Seven might have its fair share of fighters and warriors among its ranks. But these were Army Rangers, and every single one of them looked pissed as hell at him.

Sam smirks, "See? You give me my sister, and I answer more questions. Was that so hard?" Simmons glares at him, but Sam just turns back to Keller, and says, "Um… you asked about the allspark. Yeah, so… they came to earth looking for some kind-of cube looking thing. And so Mr. NBE-One here…"

Harper finally lifts her head and says, "What the hell does that even mean? His name is Megatron." Sam points, "Thank you for the confirmation. That's what they call him. But… basically, he wants to transform human technology to take over the universe. That's the decepticons' plan."

Cooling his overheated temper for a moment, Simmons asks, "And you're sure about that?" Sam nods, and then grins when Harper leans back and finally gets Will to put her down. Her hand stays gripped to his shirt front, but she turns to Simmons and says, "Yes, we're sure about that. Unlike you, who simply kidnaps and tortures them, we actually tried talking to these guys. They like us, and explained everything."

Glaring, she adds, "By the way. Nice face." Simmons touches the bandage over his broken nose tenderly while trying to glare back at her. But with the rest of her army friends snickering behind her, it doesn't really work.

And apart from that, Sam is still looking at the other guy that was showing them around now. Shaking his head in disbelief, he asks, "You guys know where it is, don't you?" The man looks like he might like to argue against that. But before he can speak, Keller says, "I would think very hard about your next words if I were you."

He gestures to Harper, and then says, "They're pissed off enough as it is, because they've found her in this kind of condition, and because most of it is your fault. They're not gonna take kindly to being lied to." After that, the man ponders a moment, and then sighs before saying, "Follow me."

Harper jumps in surprise when Will slips an arm behind her back. And then she barely has time to wrap her arms around his neck before he scoops her legs out from under her. "Will! I can walk!" He simply squeezes her tighter against his body and says, "I'm sure you can. But I've just spent nearly a whole week going through hell and back, trying to get back home to visit you." Looking down at her, he says, "Let me. Please?"

He grins when she simply drops her head against his chest. Sighing, she whispers, "I'm so tired." "I know, sweetheart. I promise when this is finished, I'll take you on a vacation." "The beach?" "Wherever you want to go, that's where we'll go." She laughs a little, not completely believing it, even if it was nice to hear. But Will already knows of a friend in the army who owns a beach house of his own. The discounted rate for being his friend would make it easy to make a beach vacation happen.

Alone. Away from anybody else. Where they could hopefully explore a little further the new relationship he intended on having with her. But, first things first, he needed to tell her he loved her, and get her to admit she was in love with him.

For now though, he'd settle for carrying her to wherever they were going next. Well, and figuring out…

"What the hell happened to you?" Harper blinks and then looks up at him. And though the hands that were holding her were firm but gentle… she doesn't think she's ever seen William Lennox look so angry in all her life. Shifting a bit, she says, "Um… well, I took on a miniature version of a decepticon. He was attacking Sam, and then he attacked me when I wouldn't let him attack Sam."

She tilts her head so he can see her neck, "He tried to choke me out. But then Mikaela chopped him to pieces. She's awesome, by the way. We really like her." Will grins, noting a faint blush that enters Harper's cheeks when he does grin at her. "Noted. We like Mikaela. What else? Your whole body smells like you were burnt. And you're favoring your left side. Why?"

Harper blinks again, because she hadn't thought he'd notice that. He just raises an eyebrow, still demanding an answer to his question. Finally, she just grins and shakes her head at him. "Um… well, I fell. From really high up. And the first autobot that tried to catch me… didn't really understand yet just how fragile humans can be. But the second one that caught me did wonderfully."

Leaning up to his ear, she whispers, "Which reminds me, we need to find my bike, and Sam's car. ASAP." "Noted. And what about the fact that you look like you were put in a slow-cooker." "Gee, thanks." "Harper…" Sighing, she says, "I don't know who, but one of them tazed me. With a tazer meant to be used on autobot aliens, not humans. So… I was pretty nearly deep-fried for a minute there. But I'm fine now!"

Will is still glaring forward, and he asks, "Was it that one?" She glances at Simmons, and then says, "I don't think so. I don't know who did it." "Then why is his nose broken?" "Because he threatened Mikaela's dad, and I was tired of listening to him talk."

Grinning again, Will hefts her a little higher and pulls her in tighter to his body. Gentling his tone finally, he says, "Missed you." "Missed you too. By the way, don't ever do this to me again. A very intuitive EMT told me that believing you guys were dead sent me in a mild episode of depression. And I'm very much against doing that again."

She closes her eyes when he kisses the top of her head, and then smiles when he says, "I will do everything in my power to never let it happen again." "Good. Now, please put me down. I think we're here."

He reluctantly sets her on her feet, but not for a moment does he allow her to leave his side. And she actually gives him a look, raising an eyebrow when, as they're all looking at the giant-ass cube in the other room, Will continues to put an arm around her waist, drawing her closer to him when he thinks she's getting too far away.

He just shakes his head in response to her look, not really knowing what else to say right now. He needed her close. He wasn't about to let anything else happen to her if he could, and for that, he needed her close.

Also… well, he just needed to be near her right now. He'd spent about a week in the desert, trying to get back to her, alright? He feels pretty entitled to request her presence be near his for quite a bit of the upcoming future.

Then they all look at the female analyst, who says, "Wait… you said the dam hides the cube's energy? What kind exactly?" The other man, whom Harper has finally figured out is named Tom Banachek, points to her, "Good question. Right this way."

As they're taken into another room, with a few scientists and a creepy looking box in the middle, Tom says, "Please step inside. They have to lock us in." And as he and Harper take up a position next to the box, Will can't help grinning when she says, "Right. Because being locked inside this room next to the scary, glowy, box of death isn't foreboding at all." "Box of death?" "You got a better name for it?"

He shrugs, and then glances to his right to look at the torn up walls some more. When he turns back, Harper has left his side briefly, talking to Epps in a nearby corner of the room.

Grabbing Bobby's arm, she immediately asks, "Is Will alright?" Epps nods, "Yeah, he's fine now. Why?" "He's… I don't know. I mean, it's not weird for him to touch me. He's just… rather determined to keep me close right now. Are you sure he's…" Putting hands on her shoulders, Bobby says, "Harp, the man just spent a week traveling through a hot dessert, battling two of these decepticon monsters on the way, so he could get back to you. He's been trying ever since we reached the base. So… he's just really glad he's finally with you right now."

Harper blinks, "Okay… but… you all went through the desert to get back here. You all…" Epps shakes his head, "He came through it to get back to you. Specifically, Harper. And when we all get back to our families, we'll hold them as close and not let them go for a while." "But I'm not…"

Then she narrows her eyes at Epps, "What's going on? Why is he…" But Bobby shakes his head. Making crossing motions with his hands, he says, "Nope. Nuh-uh. I'm staying out of this. You and he will talk later, and you'll both figure it out on your own from here. I'm done. Bye."

And he literally walks to the other side of the room. Harper's jaw drops in disbelief, even as one of the other soldiers chuckles at her shocked face.

Then she turns to Will again, whose eyes have narrowed playfully at her. Snapping her mouth shut, she moves back to his side, but keeps her arms crossed. Which doesn't stop him in the slightest from wrapping his arm around her waist, or from leaning down to whisper in her ear, "What were you talking to Epps about?" "Nothing."

There's a laugh in his voice when he says, "Liar." She sticks her tongue out at him, making him laugh. Then they return to being serious as Glen hands over his phone, and Simmons places it inside the box. He says something about the phone being Japanese, and that you had to respect the ways of the Samurai. Which would be all well and good… except the phone is a Nokia. And as Maggie, Glen's analyst friend, makes note… Nokias are from Finland.

Harper shakes her head while trying not to laugh, and then jumps when Will places a hand on her back. He wasn't teasing her right now though. His hand simply rested there, his thumb moving in small, slow circles.

It felt really good. Harper swears, she'll pay him to do that so she can fall into a peaceful sleep when all of this is over.

But for now, they watch as the phone gets zapped with some of the cube's energy, and then it magically comes to life. Complete with tiny missiles and machine guns somehow preloaded. Harper has no idea how that works. And as the little demon starts breaking the box, Tom hits a switch, which kills the thing before it can break free.

Then, before anything else can be discussed, the lights flicker in the room, and a tremendous amount of thumping and shaking causes the entire facility to pause in its work. Will stares up at the ceiling for a moment, wondering how stable the structure really is. But then he looks down at Harper as she mutters, "Bad. Very, very bad."

As Keller informs them that the decepticons must know that the cube is here, Tom gets on the speaker to demand an answer for what's happening. And it's a worst nightmare come true. The Megatron hanger has lost power, and the backup generator that they have, isn't going to cut it.

Seriously! Why the fuck do you have a backup generator, if it's not going to provide enough backup power when you so desperately need it?! Shit!

Will is already in motion. Leaning down over the desk where Tom is beginning to panic, he asks calmly, "Do you have an arms room?" Nodding shakily, he directs Simmons to show them the way.

Simmons is about to declare that there is no way in hell Harper, Sam, or Mikaela are coming. But Will takes Harper's hand and says, "She, her brother, and their friend stay with me." "All due respect son…"

Harper's eyes widen when Will gets in Simmons' face. "All due respect… you apparently tried to kill her, and kidnap her entire family. She stays with me. At all times. End of discussion." And then to his men, he shouts, "Let's move!"

* * *

In the weapons room, though Harper briefly begins helping with the loading and unpacking of weapons that hadn't been touched in who knows how long, she stops when a gigantic thump surges through the entire facility. They were running out of time.

Glancing at Sam, she nods, and Will watches as she suddenly hurries away from the table next to him, joining Sam to talk to Simmons. Pleading with the man, Sam starts, "You have to take me to my car. You have to. He's gonna know what to do with the cube." Glaring at them, he says, "Your car, and your bike, are confiscated." Harper glares back, "The un-fucking-confiscate them." "We do not know what will happen if we let them near this thing!" "I know what's going to happen if you don't!"

He gives her a look, "What? You gonna break my nose again?" "No. But I will break both your hands, dislocate both shoulders, shatter your knee-cap, and then… yeah, then maybe I'll break your nose again."

The rest of the room had gone silent for a moment, but Simmons doesn't care. "I have people's lives at stake here, little lady!" "So do I! We can't just wait here and see what happens!" "You do not…!"

He should not have reached out and grabbed Harper's arm. The butt-end of the gun that came up and re-broke his nose, wouldn't have done so, if he hadn't tried to grab her. But he did, and now his nose was broken. Again. Harper's eyes widen before she glances over to see Will pushing the shoulder strap of the gun back up his arm so it rests at his back again. He simply brushes a hand up and down her back briefly, both comforting for her, and a clear sign to everyone else in the room that they were not allowed to touch her while he was here.

Then Will shoves Simmons back against a nearby vehicle and demands, "Take them to their cars. Now." Which then results in a sort of Mexican standoff. Every single one of Will's men takes aim at an S-Seven agent that was trying to take aim at him. Will even draws his pistol, pointing it at the man to his right before saying, "Drop it."

Simmons still feels fairly confident, and says calmly, "Drop your weapon, soldier. There's an alien war going on, and you're gonna shoot me?!" "Yeah, well, we didn't ask to be here." "Yeah, well, you certainly seemed happy to be here when your little girlfriend showed…"

The hand on his vest moved to his throat, pressing dangerously, before Will says calmly through his glare, "You're going to want to watch your mouth." Simmons glares back, "I'm ordering you under S-Seven executive jurisdiction!"

Coming up to Will's side, Harper spits out, "S-Seven doesn't exit." Will nods, "Exactly. And we don't take orders from people that don't exist." Simmons glares at Harper now and says, "If it were up to me, you'd be shot in the head, right now!"

John Keller honestly hadn't been sure what would happen in this situation at first. But upon hearing the threat to Harper, the entire group of Army Rangers backed in closer together, tightening their circle around Will, and consequently, Harper as well.

Keller was still trying to figure out what made her so special, when he saw very briefly, the inside flap of her jacket as she turned to look around.

Stepping closer, he holds up his hands in a peaceful gesture, and Will's men let him through. Simmons is still confident he will win, and tells Will, "I'm gonna count to five, okay?" Will simply turns his pistol from the man aiming at him, and instead shoves it against Simmons' chest, "Well, I'm gonna count to three."

As they continue to stare each other down, Keller steps up to Harper. "Young lady?" She turns to him, and he gestures to her jacket while asking, "May I?"

She slips it off for him to look at, and can't completely ignore his widening eyes at the bruises her skin has underneath. Her tank top had partially burned off on the side, and without her jacket, those bruises were that much more visible. Her skin was covered in soot and dirt, sweat and bruises, and even a little blood from where she'd skidded across the ground from the impact of the tazer.

But her movements gave away nothing, and Keller couldn't help grinning at her, before looking to the jacket again. And on the inside, he saw the name of every man in Will's unit, including Will himself, embroidered on the flaps. And at the bottom, a slightly modified version of the motto of the Army was embroidered, saying, 'She We'll Defend'.

Handing it back to her, he says with a gentle smile, "That's not an honor handed out to just anybody." "I know. And I wear it with great pride." Will glances back at her, noting her appearance without the jacket. And he had half a mind to shoot Simmons anyway.

But then, Keller says, "Simmons? I'd do as this man says. Losing's really not an option for these guys. Plus…" He gestures to Harper, and then says, "You threatened a person that they've singled out as being one that they will defend. Meaning above all else. Meaning to the death." Coming closer, he adds, "Meaning you were screwed the minute you laid hands on her."

For a moment, all is silent again. But Simmons apparently does finally begin to feel the full gravity of the moment weighing down on him. So he nods, "Fine. Okay. You wanna lay the fate of the world on the kid's Camaro and her motorcycle? That's cool."

Will still punches him in the face again, sending him falling to his ass on the ground. Holstering his weapon, he then nearly falls down in surprise when Harper jumps at him from the side. Pressing a hard kiss to his cheek, she whispers, "Thank you!"

And then she grabs Sam while saying, "Come on! Let's go!"

Epps grins at Will, who touches his cheek with a grin of his own. Then he looks at the rest of his men before saying, "Oh, shut up. And follow her, for the love of God. We lose her now, we won't be finding her again until this is over."


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: "I do not own any part of the transformers franchise, or any of their characters. I own only Harper, and any original content that I make her do or say. Everything else is property of the amazing men and women who brought this story to life on the big screen. Thank you."

* * *

Chapter 8

While Sam and half the group stop at the bunker Bumblebee is held in, Harper sprints in the direction that Tom had already said Dragonfly was in. Of course, they had already labeled him as NBE-Three… but Tom figured out very quickly that if he didn't want a broken nose of his own, he should never call her bike that ever again.

She still has the pass she swiped from another agent, so by the time they reach her, the doors are already opening, and she runs inside and immediately screams, "NO!" The rest come in to find Dragonfly being electrocuted and continuously frozen using the cannons of cold air.

And when Harper goes ahead and, at the very least, sprains one of the men's ankles while disarming him, Tom hurriedly hollers for everyone else to stand down and let the alien go.

Dragonfly flips around immediately to find Harper, having heard her voice the second she walked in. Then, upon seeing all the other guns in the room, he drops down his face mask and levels his own blaster at everyone else.

Only Harper's cry of, "Fly! Whoa, stop! Don't! They're okay!" stops him from firing on everyone but her. Face mask still down, his eyes scan over her body again. And she can hear the fury in his voice as he says, "They hurt you."

Will and Epps look at each other, both in shock by all of this. But Harper simply says, "No. No, not them. This one…" She points to Tom, and then says, "Well, I don't really know this one. But these guys!" She hurries over to Bobby and Will, and says, "This is my unit. Remember? The guys I told you about?"

Dragonfly stares a moment more, and then lowers his gun and his face shield lifts away. Tilting his head curiously, he says, "You said they were dead." "I thought they were. I was wrong. They… well, most of them are still here."

The others stay perfectly still as Dragonfly leans in closer, eyes scanning and taking all of them in. Then he turns to Harper and asks, "Which one is William Lennox?"

Harper knows her face has turned to match the same color as her hair. Will, for his part, simply raises a hand at first while saying in surprise, "Uh… that's me." Dragonfly brings his face right in front of Will's body. Then, after a moment of scrutiny, he says, "Harper speaks very highly of you."

Grinning a bit, glancing at Harper who is blushing ten different shades of red, Will asks, "Is that right?" "Yes. I can see why she…" Harper shouts, "Fly!" Her robot leans back, "What? I was just saying…" "Well, don't say, alright. We don't have time." Will shrugs, "Oh, I don't know. I'd kind of like to hear…"

She points a stern finger at him, "No. Not now." "Later then." He smiles when she groans before she turns to glare at Bobby, who finally can't stop himself from laughing. Resigned to eventually coming back to this, Harper then turns to Dragonfly and says, "Look, the cube is here. We're gonna take you to it, alright?"

She jumps when he leans down hurriedly and asks, "Here? Truly?" "Well, yeah. So hurry up and change back so we can get moving. You'll get around easier as the bike." He holds out his hand for her first, and she shocks everyone when she immediately steps into his palm as though it were second nature. Then Dragonfly transformed swiftly back into his bike, with Harper already seated on the back. Revving the engine, he says, "Let's roll."

* * *

In the chamber with the cube, as soon as they breach the doorway, Dragonfly shifts back into his normal body. Harper ends up in his hand again, and he places her back directly next to where Will is standing.

As Fly moves to join Bumblebee at the cube, Will nudges Harper. "So… you bought a bike." "Yeah." "And he's…" "An alien. Yep. Who knew, right?" He grins at her, and then smirks while adding, "And he knows me by name." Harper turns away, but Will pulls her back. Bending down so he can catch her eyes, he adds, "And you speak very highly of me." "Will, I am not in the mood." "Really?"

She couldn't really help it. Much as she didn't want to talk about this, his smile was infectious. Shaking her head as she grins with him, she says, "Just… please, not now." He stares at her meaningfully for a few moments more. Then he relents. He still pulls her into his side, but he simply runs a hand up and down her back soothingly while saying, "Don't worry, Harper. One way or another, this is all about to end soon."

As Bumblebee and Dragonfly work with the cube, Epps can't help but comment, "Okay, here we go. They're doing something. They are definitely doing something." And sure enough, with a flash of energy going through the massive cube, even Harper's jaw drops open when the thing suddenly begins folding in on itself. And where a cube that was at first twenty stories high had previously stood, now a box that could easily be tucked under a person's arm, rested in Bee's hands.

Then the Camaro says through his radio, "Message from Starfleet, Captain. Let's get to it!"

And Harper smiles wide, and can't help loving him even more, when Will seems to understand exactly what he's saying. Stepping down with the others in charge, he says, "He's right. If we stay here, we're screwed with Megatron in the other hangar."

And he was calling the evil robot Megatron. Not NBE-One. Could the man get anymore perfect?

Pondering it a moment, Will then says, "Mission City is twenty-two miles away. We're gonna sneak that cube out of here, and we're gonna hide it somewhere in the city." Keller agrees wholeheartedly, but then Will sighs and says, "But we cannot make a stand without the AirForce."

At that, Harper tilts her head. Pulling out her own cellphone, which by some miracle, actually is still working, she shoves it in Epps' direction and says, "Go ahead. You can usually get right through to them, right?" He nods, but then explains, "Communications are down all over the world, Harp. We can't even use landlines." "Why does no one tell me these things?!"

As Keller and Simmons form a plan to find a radio with short wave transmissions, Will rounds up his men, "Alright, let's move! Sam, get in the car…" He turns to Harper, "Bumblebee?" She nods, "Bee, for short." Nodding, he then points to her and says, "And you, get onboard Dragonfly. We're getting out of here. Now." Back to Keller, he says, "Mr. Secretary! Get our birds in the air. When we get to the city, we're gonna find a radio, and I'll have Epps vector them in! Okay? Move it!"

They're all loading up and raring to go, when Epps starts hopping into the driver's seat of the vehicle Will had intended to drive. Will gives him a confused look, but then blushes himself when Bobby simply says, "What are you standing here staring at me for? Go hitch a ride with your girl!"

Glancing back to where Harper is already sitting astride Dragonfly, he ponders for a moment if now is really a good time to be doing this. Teasing was one thing. But this… he'd probably forget for a moment that he was on a crucial mission.

But… the bike probably wouldn't, which would definitely be helpful. So without thinking it over anymore, he runs over. "Hey, Harper!" She snaps her head up to see him approaching. "Yeah?" He takes a minute to catch a breath, and then, "I just… uh…" And then he throws up a hand as though not knowing what else to say, and asks, "Is there room for two on your friend here?"

Harper honestly doesn't know the answer to that at first, but then can't help laughing when Dragonfly, before their very eyes, stretches himself to be a bike that accommodates two riders. Smiling back at her, Will waits for her to scoot back, and then hops on in front of her. And though he could reach the handles, he found the car was already revved and pulling out before he did anything. All he had to do was hang on for the ride.

Well… sort of. They were about halfway to Mission City, when Harper suddenly threw one hand up and shouted, "Optimus!"

The truck and three other vehicles that passed them down the road then all made sharp and quick U-turns, making to follow them into the city as well. Turning his head, Will asks, "More Autobots?" Harper nods, and as those vehicles move in to help with the perimeter around Bee, she says, "Okay, the GMC is called Ironhide. The emergency vehicle is Ratchet. The Pontiac is Jazz. And the giant flaming truck is the leader." "Optimus?" "Yes!"

The kiss to his cheek makes him grin. If he kept it up with remembering all of this, he'd eventually get a kiss on the lips.

First things first, protect the cube. Then worry about making the love of his life swoon. But first, the cube. God, he needed to get a grip. Though her hands wrapping around him tightly weren't helping much.

Not that he was going to tell her to let go. No way in hell.

* * *

They're only about a mile from Mission City, when Sam yells, "Harper!" Dragonfly speeds up to be next to Bee, and Sam explains, "Cop car! Same cop car!"

She glances back to see the same God-forsaken cop car that had terrorized Sam earlier. Glaring at it, she says, "On it!" Then to her bike, she says, "Fly, get me to Jazz!" Will turns his head and asks, "What's happening?" "See that cop?"

Will glances to see it, "Yeah?" "Not a cop. Decepticon." "Shit." "Exactly."

Pulling up next to the Pontiac, Harper hollers, "Jazz! Decepticon at six o'clock!" "On it, my lady." Harper blinks at the phrase, 'my lady', but smiles all the same as the car brakes back to talk to Optimus. Will turns his head again and asks, "Did he just call you 'my lady'?" "Don't even get me started. That's a whole other story."

And as they continue driving down the road, Will feels Harper tap his shoulder. Turning his head, he watches in amazement as the giant flaming truck begins transforming in the middle of their high-speed drive towards the city. "Damn! He's even bigger than Bumblebee." "He's the leader." Nodding, Will then turns back to be facing forward while asking, "He gonna be okay?"

He's rewarded with another kiss on the cheek for his concern over the giant robot, and then she says, "Optimus can handle the cop car. I'm sure the others wouldn't have left him behind to handle it if he couldn't." "Good. In that case, first thing we need to do when we get to the city, is find a radio. Some way for us to signal the air support of what we need from them." Harper nods, and clings to him tighter as Dragonfly revs up to go faster. Whatever they were going to try and do, they had to do it faster. They were running out of time.

* * *

Will was honestly about to give up looking for any sort of radio that would be able to do anything for them in this place. Then Harper, from the other end of the pawn shop they were in, shouts, "Will!" Running up behind her, he looks down when she sighs and says, "I… well, I thought I had something."

She holds up the bulky shortwave radios that she'd managed to locate within the store. Shortwave, meaning that the planes and jets would have to be exceptionally close before they'd be able to get any sort of message up to them. And Harper was about to put them back down, because what good was that actually going to do them.

But Will picks them up and says, "Better than nothing. Good job." He kisses the side of her forehead, grinning a bit when she blushes. Oh, he was going to enjoy teasing her about some of this later. But right now, they had a cube to hide, a war to win, and a decepticon to hopefully kill. Not necessarily in that order.

Grabbing her hand, he runs back out to where the trucks are stopped waiting for them. Along with the autobots.

He has to rejoin his men now. On the journey here, there wasn't much to decide or command of them, except that they get here with the cube. Now, there would be a lot more decision making to be done, and he was their leader.

Which meant Harper would have to go on with Dragonfly, without him. And he knew the autobot was protective of Harper. No harm would come to her so long as she stayed with the bike. But… well, it still wouldn't be the same as when he could keep his own eyes on her.

Gripping her arm as she hops onto her seat again, he says, "Be careful." "Back at you."

She tilts her head at the long look he gives her. There was clearly more he wanted to say. Maybe more he wanted to do. But they both knew they didn't have time. Finally, he sighs. Kissing the side of her head hard, he says, "Don't you dare die on me today. Understand?" Harper nods, a bit bewildered by how desperate he seemed to be for her to listen to that command. But then she shakes herself and says, "You either. Or I will be fucking pissed." He finally grins, "Yes ma'am."

Running towards the jeep with Epps, he says, "I got shortwave radios." As he hands them off, Epps stares at them for a moment before saying, "Wait… what am I supposed to do with these?" And even though it was better than nothing, Will honestly didn't know what he was supposed to do with them either. But he simply shouts, "Well, use them! It's all we got!" "Man! This is like… RadioShack-dinosaur-radios or something, man. I'm only gonna get twenty or thirty miles out of these things."

Will glances at him with an impressed look, because he honestly hadn't expected to even get that out of them. Perhaps they weren't as bad off as he'd originally thought. Epps then says into the mike, "Are there any aircraft orbiting the city?"

As a jet shoots overhead, Will points out, "F-22, twelve o'clock. Alright, I want planes for air cover and get black hawks on station to extract that cube. You got it?" "Copy."

Halting in the middle of the street, Harper pulls up beside Sam as Will and Bobby begin trying to make contact with the jet. But even as they try, popping green smoke to signify the location of the target for extraction, Harper can tell something isn't right.

And Sam can tell from the look on her face. Briefly touching her wrist to get her attention, he asks, "What's up?" "I don't know. But… the jet is taking it's turns entirely too close to the buildings. It's like he's showing off… except there's no one to show off for."

And then Ironhide, from behind them, hurriedly transforms and says, "It's Starscream!" Harper glances back at him, and then jumps in surprise when Fly immediately starts moving her backwards down the road. Ironhide stands up straight, "Backup! Take cover! Bumblebee, help me with this!"

Fly would've kept moving her backwards, except Harper leaned forward and jerked down the brakes. "Harper, we must…" "My brother is still up there in the middle of this. So is the love of my life. I will not go back and sit on the sidelines safely, while they're in the midst of a firefight. So either protect me while we're in there together, or sit back by yourself and watch us get hurt."

The bike sighs, "You know I would not do that. But your safety is my priority." "The cube is everyone's priority." "Perhaps. But your safety matters more to me than that." Harper grins at the bike, and then says, "Well, I appreciate that. But they're safety matters more to me. So let's go."

But even as they head back into the fray, with everyone else now understanding that they needed to get the fuck out of the way now, Ironhide screams to Fly, "Dragonfly! Protect the humans!"

He quickly transforms, Harper ending up in his hand again. Then he grabs Sam and Mikaela in time to hunker down before the missile hits the truck that Bee and Ironhide were lifting as a shield to try and take the blow. Both of them end up blown back hard from the explosion, but everyone else seemed okay.

Even Dragonfly got knocked down, rolling to a stop near the trucks again. But as he opened his hands, the three humans in his charge were fine.

Bee, on the other hand. Sam scrambles over to him, begging him to get up. But the autobot's legs had been crashed into and cut off. He was a legless machine now. Still functioning… still alive… but obviously in pain, even as he continued trying to drag himself back into the fight.

Harper grabs Sam in a tight hug so he doesn't freak out more than he already is, and then says, "He's hurt, but he's still alive. They can fix him." Sam nods, remembering that even though they were living machines, they were still machines. Made up of parts and pieces that could be fixed and put back together. And with that in mind, he turns his head and yells, "Ratchet!"

But the other robots are now trying to deal with the tank that is rolling down the road, crushing cars beneath him, firing at Will and his unit to try and kill them before they can protect the cube. Glancing at all of them, Harper then looks up to Dragonfly. Gesturing to the others, she says, "Go and help them." "What will you do?" "I'll stay here with Bee. Try and figure out how to get him out of the street."

Dragonfly nods in approval of that, and then hurries to join his brothers in taking down the tank. Meanwhile, as Sam sets himself before his car, declaring he won't leave him, Harper grabs Mikaela's arm. "Tell me you know how to hotwire a car." Mikaela blinks, but nods, "Yeah, I…" "Good. Come with me."

They race towards the tow truck in the alley on the side of the street, and after knocking in the window, Harper says, "Get that started, back it towards him. I'll help you hook him up. We have to get him out of here." "On it."

As they're wrapping him up, Will and his unit begin falling back towards them. Will shouts, "Harper!" Jerking around to look at him, she points when he asks, "Where's the cube?" "Right here!" He nods in approval, and then keeps running past her as he tries to figure out a plan. There's a tank at their front, a helicopter at their back, and neither are friendly or easily taken down.

Also, he's pretty sure Jazz is dead. But he'd tell Harper that after this was over. If they all survived, that is. Eyeballing the building on the next street over, he says, "That'll work." He hurries back over to them, looking up at Sam as he says, "Alright. I can't leave my guys back there, so here. Take this flare. Okay? There's a tall white building with statues on top. Go to the roof. Set the flare."

Sam's eyes have grown as wide as saucers, but before Will can argue with him as Sam says that he can't do it, Will jumps and rubs his arm when Harper punches him. Hard.

Glaring at the man that is admittedly the love of her life, she says, "You can't ask him to do that!" "Why not?!" "Because I'm here and I can run faster than him." Yanking the flare from Sam, she then asks, "What else?" Will grabs it as well, attempting to take it back from her. But he only succeeds in pulling her closer to him, since she refuses to let it go.

One thing he found infuriating about her, while loving it at the same time, was how stubborn she could be when she'd set her mind to something. There was very little that could come along to change it when that happened.

It's part of why he didn't want to say 'I love you' over a screen, or right now in the heat of a battle. She'd chalk it up to that, to the intense situation around them. Not to his real affection for her. Then she'd avoid him. Then she'd refuse to talk about it ever again. No… no, getting her to believe he loved her, after all this time, was going to require a more private setting, with at least a little more time for him to make sure he could convince her he was telling the truth.

And he was honestly looking forward to having to convince her. Hence his loving her stubbornness a bit. But right now…

Glaring back at her, he says, "I'm not sending you up there." "Oh, but you'll send my little brother? I don't think so." "I don't have time to argue, Harper!" "Good! Then quit and tell me what I need to know."

They stare each other down for a moment more, and then Sam hops down from the truck. Going alone… yeah, he wasn't really okay with that. But going with Harper?

Nodding, he says, "I'll go with her. We'll both go. What do you need us to do?" Will glances at him, and he's honestly still not thrilled about it. But Harper not going alone was better than her doing this by herself. So he says, "Set the flare. It'll signal the choppers that you have the cube. You need to take it, and get it into military hands, while we hold these guys off down here."

Glancing at Mikaela, he says, "And she needs to leave." Harper just gestures to the truck, "Not without Bee." And on that point, Will can agree. Nodding, he says, "I'll finish helping her rig this. But you two, you need to get this done. Now."

As they're about to head off, Will grips Harper's arm again. Pulling her close again, he says, "Do not forget. You promised me you wouldn't die." "So did you." She was still pissed that he'd almost sent her brother alone to do this, so he leaned down closer. Sighing against her neck as he rests his head at her temple, he says, "I'm sorry. I just… I can't lose you."

She softens her features at that, but then says back to him, "And I can't lose him." Will nods, because he knows that too. Then he lets her go and says, "Hurry." "Copy that." As they begin to set off in that direction, Ironhide and Ratchet join them, saying, "We will protect you." Harper nods her appreciation, but then glances around and asks, "Where's Dragonfly?"

Ratchet moves to help fend off a bullet that was headed for them, and then answers, "He is back with your army unit, doing what he can to help them." And both he and Ironhide can't help grinning when Harper simply says, "God, I love my bike."

* * *

Starscream ends up causing them the most trouble. He sends a blockade of cars tumbling over one another, nearly crushing both her and Sam. But with Ironhide and Ratchet's help, they manage to chase that little pest back into the skies. Both autobots thoroughly worn out, they still pull themselves back to their feet while saying, "Get to the building. We'll cover you from here."

Of course, as soon as they get near the entrance, Harper hears Megatron say, "Give me that cube, boy!" The two just glance at each other, before kicking it into an even higher gear.

Sam pauses for a moment once they're inside the building. But Harper jerks on his arm and says, "No time for admiring scenery. Let's go." "Right."

They'd no sooner gotten into the next part of the building, then they heard one of the large front windows shatter, and Megatron declares, "I can smell you, boy!" Rounding a corner on the stairs, Harper lets out a huff while whispering, "Well, that's attractive." Sam actually manages to grin at her, before they both jerk and run as the floor beneath their feet begins lifting and tearing apart. Megatron's giant head sticks up out of the floor, taking up almost the entire space from floor to ceiling on this level. And one large hand reaches up with him to swipe at them.

Diving into another room, Harper grabs Sam up off the floor, shoving him towards more stairs. "Come on. Faster we move, faster we get rid of this, faster we can get him off our asses." "Right."

When they finally get to the roof, Harper holds out her hands and says, "Switch with me." "What?! Why?" "Because Megatron knows you have the cube. So if he gets up here before the chopper, he'll go for you first. Then he'll see you don't have it, and then he'll go for me. Which might buy us enough time to pull this off. So switch!"

He takes the flare while she takes the cube, and then they both hurry in opposite directions on the roof.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Epps says, "Lennox! Choppers want to know who has the cube. Boy or girl. They're apparently going in opposite directions." And it doesn't even take Will a second of thought to figure that out. Cursing under his breath, he says, "Harper has it!" Epps blinks, "You sure? I thought you said…" "I did. But at this point, she'll have it. So tell them it's the girl!"

Back on the roof, as the chopper lifts up in the air high enough for Harper to see it, she thinks they may have finally gotten it done. The cube would be taken away and put somewhere safe. Megatron would never get it. He wasn't even up here yet to try and stop them. Maybe it could finally be over.

But as she starts handing the cube off, Sam screams, "Watch out! Missile! Watch out!"

Harper pulls back with barely enough time to get out of the way. And then she has to scramble back so the tail of the helicopter doesn't slice her in half. Bricks still get broken and tossed about, one hitting her in the head and making a trail of blood leak down her temple.

Sam helps her to her feet, brushing at the blood with his sleeve. Wincing, Harper then starts to ask, "Now…" But she doesn't finish, as Megatron begins crashing his way through the roof to be with them. Shoving Sam back from her, she says, "Go the other way." "What?! But…" "Go! Now!"

He sprints back to where he had been heading, and Harper heads in her same direction from earlier. Finding one of the statues, she climbs on the ledge and rounds the other side of it. She offers herself one brief glance towards the ground, just as a reminder to her brain that if she steps off at this point, she's going to go splat and die at this point.

Then she trembles a bit when Megatron asks, "Is it fear or courage that compels you, fleshlings?" He makes to head towards Sam at first, just as Harper had predicted he would upon arriving. But, to her amusement and chagrin, he takes a sniff at the air, and then immediately turns in her direction. So, it wasn't just them that he smelled. It was the cube itself. And now he knew that she had it.

Glancing down again, she curses the fact that this building doesn't have any extra fire escapes or anything like that. She needs a new way down, and there isn't any other exit in sight.

In spite of the fact that she was, at this point, probably going to die, she tightens her grip on the cube when Megatron says, "Give me the allspark, and you may live to be my pet, little girl." Peeking around the statue, glaring at him, she says, "Never!" "Oh… how very unwise." "Yeah, well, you calling me 'little girl' was your mistake."

Narrowing his eyes, he unleashes what can only be called his own personal wrecking ball from his hand, and then smashes it into the space between her statue and the statue next to it. He obviously couldn't hit her. She had the cube, and he'd end up hitting that if he hit her. And who knows what would happen to it if that happened. But... the impact of smashing into the portion of the building next to her... just that alone, sends Harper flying back and into the expansive space between herself and the street below.

She hears Sam's terrified scream of, "HARPER!" She also thinks she hears Dragonfly shout, "NO!" from somewhere in the distance.

Then she feels herself come to a halt much sooner than she should have, and Optimus' voice says, "I've got you, girl." Opening her eyes, she sees him holding himself up between two buildings, somehow rather stealthy for an autobot that was by far the largest that they'd seen yet. Smiling, Harper then says, "About time you joined the party."

He offers her a brief smile, and then says seriously, "Hold onto the cube." And then his mask covers his face, and Harper huddles herself around the cube while Optimus curls his entire hand around her protectively. And then they begin crashing their way back towards the ground.

Of course, she can feel when Optimus is no longer the only one bringing her down. Megatron was now on top of them as well, trying to force Optimus to drop her, and the allspark in the process. Yeah… that never happens. Optimus' fist only opens again when they're on the ground. Harper stands up still on top of him, and then jerks around when his voice says her name in more of a question, "Harper?"

Nodding to him, she tilts her head when he comments, "You risked your life to protect the cube." And as Sam makes his way out of the building, sighing in relief to see her alive, he can't help smiling when she says in answer, "One thing I did actually learn from my dad. No sacrifice, no victory." Optimus nods approvingly of that statement, and then says, "If I cannot defeat Megatron, you must push the cube into my chest. I will sacrifice myself to destroy it."

Harper tilts her head at that, but before she can argue with him, he says, "Get behind me." Scrambling down to the ground, grabbing Sam as he runs up beside her, they hurry into one of the trenches that was created by an earlier explosion. Running through the water and muck below, as Megatron and Prime go at it, Harper turns to Sam and says, "I have an idea."

* * *

Will and his unit are trying to make their way towards Optimus, but have to come up short when the decepticon chopper arrives and begins making his way towards the fight as well. Epps listens on his radio, and then says, "Fighter jets in sixty seconds." Then into the mike, he explains, "We got friendlies mixed with bad guys. Targets will be marked."

But what if, as had been happening for the past week and a half, something else happened? What would they do then? Will takes a breath as he comes up with one rather crazy, and quite possibly, insane idea for the moment. Then again, it may be the best plan yet. Patting Epps on the shoulder, he says, "Bring the rain. Let's kill these things."

They head out on his command, and then he turns back and says, "Fly!" The bike comes up the rest of the alley and stops beside him. Sighing, he says, "I need you with me. And I need you to trust me. And I also need to know if you'll get hurt if you end up on your side and skidding down the road." "I am at your disposal. And that will do nothing to me, though I do not know why you would have me on my side." "Just trust me. Let me drive." "Copy."

And sure enough… something else happened. The robot figured out he was being targeted, and turned his attention on Will's men. Epps, ever the dedicated air men, stays in place on the ground in spite of the oncoming attack, though he tells everyone else to move and get the hell back. Because this guy was definitely incoming.

Further back, Will revs the engine and asks, "You ready?" "Yes." "Let's roll then."

He speeds off down the road as fast as Fly will go, which is actually pretty fast considering all the things they still have to dodge around. Then, right as they reach the decepticon, Will turns the bike sharply and lets it fall on its side, allowing himself to slide off in the process. Screaming profanities up at the massive thing, he shoots several rounds up and into him from underneath, where their armor appeared to be the weakest. And with the F-22s finally arriving with their own fire power, the massive creature finally goes down hard.

Will is still staring at the thing upside down from his position on the ground. Then he jumps in surprise when Fly's hand scoops him up and places him back on his feet. Nodding to the robot in appreciation, he then yells, "Run! Let's move it! We need to kill this thing! Now!"

And he'd no sooner said it, then Fly scooped him up again. Turning into a bike, having Will end up sitting astride him again, he then takes off towards Megatron and Optimus. And consequently, towards where Harper and Sam are putting themselves right into the thick of this mess again.

As soon as all the fire power began weakening Megatron, Harper and Sam sprang into action. Harper had given her brother the cube again, knowing that Megatron would follow her first since she'd had it last. And as she went in a straight line down the street, she kept Megatron well within the sights of the soldiers and the jets that were preparing to fire on him.

Then, as he turned back to Sam, Harper sprinted back in that direction. Sam had the cube. The important part of her plan was now up to him. But she still intended to get there in time to pull him out of the way, if something else happened after.

And as Megatron, who is basically crazed out of his mind, obsessively keeps demanding the cube, Sam gives it to him. Just not the way he wanted it.

Optimus had said shoving the thing into his chest would kill him. So, likewise, it should kill any other creature that was of a similar species and design.

And as it dissolved and disintegrated into Megatron's chest, Harper can tell by the malfunctioning tone of his systems, that he is definitely dying. And about to collapse on top of Sam.

Will sees it about to happen too, and hops off of Fly hurriedly before shouting, "Get him out of there!" And by the time Harper gets to Sam, Dragonfly swoops in, grabbing them both and rolling out of the way before Megatron crashes to the ground.

For a moment, the stillness and silence that follows is almost as deafening as all the nose had been before. Then Optimus rises to his feet, looking down on Megatron with pity, in spite of the terrible creature he had become in his pursuit of the power of the allspark.

Bending down to Sam and Harper afterwards, he says, "Sam, I owe you my life." But Sam just points to Harper, "All her. All her idea." Optimus looks over at her, and then tilts his head, "I told you to shove it in my chest."

And as Will rounds the corner to see her again, he can't help grinning at her reply. "Well, if it's going to kill you, then it's going to kill him. Makes a whole lot more sense to me to kill the bad guy, as opposed to killing the one I like. Just my opinion."

Grinning at her, Optimus bows his head, "We are in your debt, little one." And as he rises back to his full height, even with Will and the others approaching, Sam asks, "And you aren't offended by him calling you little?" And the entire unit can't help chuckling when Harper says, "He says it like it's an endearment. Megatron said it like it was an insult. It's all about your tone, Sam. Your tone of voice says a whole lot, even if your words might not."

Harper turns when a hand lands gently on her shoulder. Finding Will behind her, she hugs him tight while Sam turns to Mikaela to hug her. Sighing against him, she then mutters, "Thank God." Will still hears the muffled words against his chest, and smiles before pressing a kiss to the top of her hair. Breathing out his own sigh of relief, he says, "Yeah. Sounds about right."

She laughs against him, but then turns to the autobots when Ironhide says, "Prime. We couldn't save him." Will feels her slump a bit in sadness at the sight of Jazz torn in two. Unlike with Bee, who had only had one and a half legs severed off, Jazz was torn almost completely in half.

Prime takes him into his hands, "Oh, Jazz." He sighs in his disappointment, but then straightens up and declares, "We lost a great comrade… but gained new ones. Thank you. All of you. You honor us with your bravery."

And then Harper jerks and slaps a hand over her mouth in surprise when Bee, using his real voice, asks, "Permission to speak, sir?" With a happier tone, Optimus replies, "Permission granted, old friend."

Harper can't help laughing when Sam bursts out, "You speak now?" Bee seems to grin in amusement too, but then says seriously, "I wish to stay with the boy." And coming up behind them, Dragonfly nods towards Harper, "And I wish to remain with Harper." Optimus nods his own approval, but adds, "If that is their choice."

Sam just smiles and nods his head, "Yes." And then he grins when Harper says, "Well, yeah. I paid twenty-five hundred for my bike. He can't just up and leave me stranded. That would be rude." Fly bends down to her, tilting his head in amusement. Harper just grins up at him, but before she can say anything, Ratchet steps up and says, "The little one seems to have recovered from her depression. Is there a reason that it happened so quickly?"

Fly stands up again and explains that her army unit isn't actually dead. At least, not all of them. Will leans down closer and asks, "Is that the EMT you mentioned?" "Yep. He's incredibly smart." Although she frowns when he then says, "She is incredibly tired though. Given all that her body has been through the past few days, I'm amazed she's still standing. Humans are so strange."

Will's arm at her back makes her sigh before she says, "I'm fine." "Maybe. But you are tired. You already told me that." "Yeah, well…" She ponders for a moment, and then says, "You know what, I don't have anything to add to that. The war is over, we won, and it's all ended now. I'm allowed to be tired." Will grins, and then glances over when Ironhide comes up and says, "I can provide transport for these two home."

Harper doesn't exactly understand why he can't offer to take more than just herself and Will, considering how many people needed to get home from this. Not to mention the fact that they still needed to wait for someone to get here to decide how this entire event was going to be cleaned up. But before she can respond, Optimus asks, "Do you wish to stay with the young officer?"

When Ironhide nods, Will can't help feeling a sense of pride at being chosen by one of them. But he can't help chuckling when, as Optimus asks why, Ironhide simply points, "I like the little one. And it seems the man will be often found around her." Ratchet nods, taking a whiff of the air before saying, "Yes. It would seem…"

But before he can finish, Harper throws up her hands, "Nope! Everybody just shut up!" Sighing and rubbing at her temples, she says, "I have a headache. I need sleep, before I can handle anymore of this." Will doesn't argue with her on that point. But when she makes to get on Dragonfly, he pulls her back with him. Opening the back door of Ironhide's truck form, he helps her in, and then climbs in behind her.

Epps throws him a thumbs up and then a salute, a sign that told him they could handle the rest of this here. All they needed Will to do now, was take care of their Harper. He gives Ironhide his address, and before Harper can worry about giving him hers, Will draws her in closer to himself.

Laying down in the backseat, he pulls her so she's laying half on top of him. Running a hand over her messy hair, he says, "Rest. It'll be a while before we get to my place." "I can go to my apartment. I need to shower, and…" "You can do that at my house." "But…" "You are not an imposition to me, Harper. Furthermore, having you close by will help my sanity immensely. So we're either going to my house, or we're going to your apartment. My house is bigger, but if you really want, I can ask Ironhide to switch."

A pause, and then Harper sighs tiredly before saying, "Just promise to wake me up for a shower. I really need one." "I promise. Now, sleep."

He waits until her breathing has evened out, and then sighs against the top of her hair. Kissing her there, he whispers, "We still have things to discuss Harper. But, they can wait a little longer. I've already waited this long. Another day or two isn't going to kill me at this point."

Though as she snuggles further into his body, soaking up his warmth and curling more around him, he wonders if that's actually true.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: "I do not own any part of the transformers franchise, or any of their characters. I own only Harper, and any original content that I make her do or say. Everything else is property of the amazing men and women who brought this story to life on the big screen. Thank you."

* * *

Chapter 9

When he woke her up the first time, upon arriving at his house, he reminded himself that it was only so she could take a shower, and then go back to sleep. And upon watching her lift her head off his chest, he felt his desire to tell her how he felt, and his desire to put her back into bed spike even more.

She was beautiful. Even if she didn't agree, he knew she was. Burnt, bruised, bloody… she was still beautiful, lifting her head up off of him and looking down at him with a tired smile.

But she also still looked tired as fuck. And it showed even more in her eyes when he first woke her up. She'd managed to hold all of her weariness at bay while it had been necessary to stay awake and fight. But now that it was over, her days of not having a truly restful night of sleep were catching up to her. Her eyes were a bit red, dark circles forming beneath them. And apart from that, the naturally cheerful glow that she usually had around all of his men was nowhere to be seen.

So before she could try and force herself to look bright-eyed when she really wasn't, he carried her inside, set her down in the bathroom, and reminded her that towels were in the cupboard by the door. He didn't have any feminine products for her to use, but she didn't care. And while she was showering, he came back in briefly to leave a pair of shorts and a t-shirt for her to wear.

When she came back out, she looked even better. Still tired, obviously. But she'd managed to wash most of the grime and muck from her skin in there. There was still a bruised ring around her neck, which was actually more prominent now that she'd scrubbed her skin so her fairer complexion was back as opposed to her burnt one. And as one shoulder of his shirt slid off her shoulder, he could see another bruise from a time when she'd fallen or been grabbed by something. Hell, she might not even be aware she had so many.

He took her into his bedroom, tucked her into the bed, and would've left her there to go back to sleep, except her hand locked around his wrist. She pulled it towards her, cradling it to her own chest like it was a favorite blanket, before mumbling, "Just… until I'm asleep." She mumbled a few more incoherent words after that, but Will figured it was all along the lines of her not wanting him to leave just yet.

And he did allow himself this one indulgence. He climbed into the bed with her, still overtop of the covers. Keeping his arm around her, he drew her back into his body, and held her close as she fell back to sleep. And before he could even wonder about how long he should allow himself to stay like this, he fell asleep right along with her.

It had been a long past few days for them both. But they were here now. They were home. And they'd accomplished everything they'd needed to in order to protect this world and the people they loved in it.

Now… he just had one more thing he had to take care of. Then he'd see about taking her on that vacation he'd promised.

* * *

Harper woke up to the smell of biscuits. Sausage, eggs, biscuits… and she's pretty sure bacon too. Sitting up, she finds her jeans from the day before sitting on the edge of the bed, already cleaned for her. There were a couple of holes in the legs now, but in today's sense of fashion, they were still a rather good pair of jeans. Her shirt was nowhere to be seen. That had apparently been torn and shredded beyond repair.

As she slid them back on, she wondered briefly where her jacket was. Then she decided that Will had probably done something else with it. Maybe sent it to the cleaners? It was a special jacket, so when it actually did get dirty, it either had to be hand-washed, or sent to the cleaners. Harper usually hand-washed it, but she knew that Will had a cleaner nearby that he liked because they always did excellent work.

Coming out of his bedroom, she makes a trip to the bathroom for a moment. Her hair was a bit of a mess from having slept on it wet. But compared to yesterday… she looked like she'd had a royal makeover. Then she went further into his house.

She found him in his kitchen, putting the plate of biscuits on the table with everything else. And upon looking up and seeing her, he smiles gently, "Hey, Harp. How you feeling?" She nods, "Better. Loads better. Thanks." Nodding back, he then gestures at the table, "I made breakfast. Definitely not as good as anything you might've made. I had a brief attempt at scrambled hash browns… but that didn't end well."

Harper just laughs, and then pauses as Will shuts his stove down before coming up to her.

Cupping her face in his hands, he sighs, "You look better." "Gee, thanks." He gives a gentle tug to the bottom of her left ear, grinning when she laughs again. "You know what I mean, Harp. You look like you feel better." She nods, "I do. It's amazing what a shower and sleep will do for a person." "Amen to that."

After he'd woken up with her still in his arms, he reluctantly pulled himself out of the bed and showered himself. So now he was clear of all that muck and grime and sweat as well. He'd thought about shaving off the stubble that had formed over the past couple of days… but then decided against it for now. Fig had informed him at one point that, though she liked him clean-shaven all the same, she seemed to have a thing for the thin amount of beard he sometimes allowed himself to have.

As her eyes roam over his whole face for a moment, she then says, "By the way, I'm really glad you're not dead." Smiling, he says, "Back at you." And as she leans forward, Will draws her in so her head can rest against his chest again. Breathing out heavily over top of her head, he adds, "Sorry it took me so long to get back."

She shrugs, and then mumbles, "It's okay. I'm just glad you guys are here now. Safe and sound and home."

He'd expected her to revert to saying 'you guys' when she spoke. Epps said she was always careful about her choice of words around him, not wanting to say something that let slip how much she loved him, as opposed to how she loved the rest of them.

Breakfast was going to have to wait. Because he couldn't anymore. Running his hand up and into the hair at the back of her head, he pulls her gently to lean back and look at him again. Then he leans down, presses a kiss to her temple, before saying, "We have things to discuss." "Yeah. I remember you… saying something about that."

He grins at the pause she has to take, his lips kissing at the back of her jaw being the cause. His nose trails down her skin as he makes his way towards her neck, breathing her in as much as possible. He can feel her skin heat up in response to how close he is, and his actions. "Um… Will, maybe we should sit down and eat the food. Before it gets cold?" "I have a microwave." "I… yeah, but…"

He didn't want to beat around the bush right now. He could tease her later, when he knew she believed him. But right now, he needs to make her see that he's not just saying this to pick at her. He means it. So he kisses at her throat, loving the way her hands at his chest grip into his t-shirt tighter. Then he lets out a content sigh before saying, "I love you."

And as he'd suspected, her entire body tenses and goes rigid. Loosening her grip on him, she says, "Will, I think…" "You think it's because of the situation we were just in. That is not accurate." "And why isn't it?" "Because I didn't just start feeling this way today, or a few days ago. I have felt this way for nearly seven whole years."

When she leans back, he lets her. Not far. He had no intention of letting her get very far out of his reach right now. But he does let her lean back enough so she can look into his face. Her eyes were narrowed in suspicion, and she says, "You… no… you would've said something." Will shakes his head, and then sighs, "A brave man would've." "You are a brave man." "I'm brave about a lot of things. I wasn't brave about this though."

He traces the side of her face with his hand, and says, "You… you really are a light in our darkest places, Harper. And I did not want to risk losing that. I didn't want you to reject me, and then treat me different from the rest of the guys. I just… I didn't want to make you feel awkward. Or like you had to be sweeter to me simply because you didn't feel that way in return. I… I just didn't want to lose you."

Sighing, he says, "A lot of that seems a bit ridiculous now. But I felt that way in the beginning, and I've let it continue to rule my decision on this for a long time. But, I should've also taken into consideration that I've known you long enough to know that there isn't a whole lot that could make you treat a person differently. And you don't get awkward around people for long. Occasionally, but then you get back into your world and your apartment… and you become yourself again, and it doesn't matter who else is there."

And Harper's eyes widen a bit when Will's seem to darken a shade as he says, "And as for treating me different from the other guys… well, I realize now that was a rather stupid reason on my part. Considering how very much different I'd like to be treated, compared to them."

She stares at him for a moment, not really understanding how to process this. She'd spent eight years in love with him, certain that he would never feel the same way, and frightened of the idea that she might lose his friendship if this came out into the open.

Speaking of which, Will watches her eyes narrow before she asks, "You already know?" "Know what?" Giving him a look, she says, "That I… I mean, you know that I…" Then she sighs before answering helplessly, "That I love you."

Will stays still for a moment, trying to temper his reaction to her words. Then he nods, "I do already know. Still nice to hear from you though." She blushes a bit, but then demands, "Who told you?" He briefly considers lying. Epps had told him to never mention that he'd said anything. But… well, he wasn't about to start this relationship on a lie. So, he concedes, "Epps."

When Harper locks her jaw in place angrily, he adds, "He only brought it up because the guys were picking on me. We were talking about what we were going to do when we got home, about what our perfect day would be like. And mine… well, aside from Epps, they all already knew what my perfect day is." "And what is that, exactly?"

She was still a little miffed, but it vanished in a heartbeat when Will smiled and said, "Being wherever you are, watching you cook, listening to you sing one of those Celtic songs you love so much. That's my perfect day."

When she doesn't respond right away after that, Will explains further, "We never brought it up in front of Epps before. Like I said, I had a few reasons that, now, seem rather stupid. Everyone else in the unit knew about it, but Epps… he's like your big brother. I honestly wasn't sure he'd be able to handle it. But it came out on the ride to Qatar, and so he finally told me you felt the same way."

Tilting his head, he adds, "He probably just got sick of the fact that, for seven years, we've basically been in love, and just never admitted it to each other. So, that's why he told me when he did. Otherwise, he never would've broken the promise of secrecy he made to you."

Harper stares at him a moment more, and then says quietly, "You… you're serious." Cupping her face in one hand, keeping his other wrapped around one of her hips for now, he lets out a helpless breath, "As a heart attack."

Silence reigns for a moment, and then Harper manages to duck her head. Will wants to tilt it back up so he can see her face, but he refrains, trying to give her time to think. So far, this was still going better then he'd thought it would. She'd offered a brief argument with him, but he'd already had his own argument ready as a comeback to what she might have to say. All he needed her to do now, was admit that she believed him.

Finally, she says softly, "So… now that we're… on the same page." Lifting her eyes to look at his, a deep blush running across her skin, she asks, "Can… Can I kiss you now? Cause, I've kind of been wanting to do that, for a really fucking long…"

He doesn't let her finish. He tilts her head back, buries his hand in her hair, and slides his lips across hers. And he wastes no time with slow and gentle. She'd apparently been waiting eight years to kiss him. They were past starting out slow. He coaxes her lips apart with his own, and the moan she lets out when his tongue sweeps into her mouth has him shuddering in both relief and desire.

Harper feels her back press against the wall moments later, and as her hands weave into his hair, she gasps when he picks her up by her thighs. Hoisting her up, hooking her legs over his hips, he then presses her firmly into the wall, his hands beginning to slowly scale back up her body.

God… this had to be heaven. That's what Will decides. Even through her jeans, he can feel her tremble as his hands work their way back up her body. And his shirt didn't give him any trouble, as it was plenty too big for her. His hands slid under there easily, her bare skin up for grabs as his fingers continued upward.

Harper has to lean back, breath becoming too necessary for her to ignore it. And then her head slumps back against the wall as Will suckles and teases the skin of her neck while his hands continue their perusal of her torso. One of her hands pulled him closer by the back of his head, while the other slid beneath the collar of his t-shirt so she could run it across the muscled and tight skin of his back.

He eventually pulled her off the wall, carrying her back down the hall and into his bedroom. He places her in the middle of the bed, climbing over top of her. And then, to her blushing pleasure, he reaches back and yanks his shirt up over his head. Bracing himself over her, he asks with a grin, "Better?"

Her hands land on his chest in response, and she bites her lip while nodding, "Yeah. Loads." "Good." He fingered the edge of the shirt she was wearing that was his, silently asking if he could do the same with it. Her arms lifted above her head in response, and she arched her back to help him lift it off of her.

Gazing down at her, he sighs, "God, you're beautiful." And when it looks like she might protest, he kisses her hard before saying, "Don't argue with me about this. You won't win." "Is that right?" "Oh, you have no idea." He kisses a line down from her chest to her stomach, coming back up on the side. She gasps at a particular point he reaches, right beneath the edge of her bra on her right side. And as he attacks that point as though it personally offended him, she moans out and begs, "Will… Will, please…"

He teases that point with his tongue a moment, and then finishes scaling back up her body. Working a hickey into the side of her neck, he briefly worries about her already being bruised there. "Does that hurt?"

But when he pulls back, all he sees it a dazed look in her eyes before she blinks and asks, "Hmm… what?" Grinning, widening his smirk as she blushes, he says, "I love you." She smiles at that, and then cups his face in her hands, "I love you too." And then she pulls him back to her lips, where they stay for… well, Harper doesn't know how long they stay there. She just knows that when a knock comes on his door, it still hasn't been long enough.

The knocking comes again, and when it happens a third time, Will groans. Dropping his head onto her shoulder, he says, "They'll leave." A fourth knock, and Harper replies, "I don't think so." "Then they have a death wish." She giggles at that, and then sighs when Will kisses her again. And she very nearly gets lost in him once more, when the pounding comes a fifth time.

Cursing under his breath, Will sighs and hops off of the bed. Harper comes after him, pulling the shirt he'd been wearing previously over her head. He very nearly yanks the door open in aggravation, but then pauses and holds it closed a smidge more while saying, "Hey Epps. What's…" "Do you know where Harper is?"

Blinking, Will asks, "What?" "Harper? Did you take her home yesterday? Cause we can't find her." Will then sighs, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly before saying, "I… yeah, she's… well, she's here." Epps gives him a look and asks, "What?" "I brought her here last night. I didn't take her home. Didn't… figure she should be left alone."

And when Epps still gives him a look, Will concedes, "And I figured having her here with me would make it easier to finally have the conversation I've been wanting to have since we landed in Qatar." "You know we've been calling you all morning, right?"

Will glances back at the counter where his phone is sitting. Sighing again, he says, "It's dead. I forgot to plug it in last night. Dude, I'm so sorry." Epps lets a moment of silence stretch between them, and then relaxes himself. Smiling at his buddy, he says, "Hey, it's alright man. We were just a little worried is all." Will nods in understanding, and then nearly jumps out of his skin when he feels Harper's lips on his stomach.

Most of his body was blocked by the door because of the way he was holding it. Which meant that as long as Harper stayed on her side of the door, she could do whatever she wanted and not be seen. And right now, her lips and tongue were mapping out the ridges of his abs, slowly working her way down to his hipline. Which was very easy to access, since the sweatpants he was wearing were hanging low on his hips anyway.

Epps, under the impression that Harper is probably still sleeping, is still talking to Will in the doorway while sending out a mass text to everyone else in the unit. Will manages to catch that Fig is recovering nicely and will be released in a few days.

Then Harper's teeth begin nibbling up his sides, and his control snaps. Harper feels his hand bury itself in her hair again, tugging her back and away from him. He glances down at her briefly, a promise of revenge in his eyes, before he turns his attention back to Epps.

"Bobby." The man stops talking to look at him. And as Will opens the door a little more, he lifts Harper to her feet again. He keeps her hidden behind the door, but reveals his shirtless form to Epps before saying, "Harper's not asleep anymore. We've already had our discussion. And we… have quite a bit more to talk about right now. Are you and the guys cool with coming here later for dinner or something?"

Epps takes a moment to look his captain over, eyes briefly resting on a dark spot that has appeared on his side. A hickey, from the looks of it. Smirking, Epps says, "Damn, boy. You do work fast, don't you?" Will grins a bit, but pleads, "Bobby." "Yeah, yeah, we'll all come by later. Much later. But tell Harp…" He says the last part louder, "We expect a full course meal. After a week in the desert, we're desperate for some of her homemade goodness." "I'll be sure to give her the message."

As soon as Bobby leaves, Will shuts the door by pushing Harper up against it. Nose brushing hers briefly, he says in a deep voice, "I haven't even officially asked you out, and you're already driving me crazy." "Consider it payback for how often you've driven me crazy over the years." Will raises an eyebrow, "I've been in love with you almost as long as you have been with me. You don't think you've driven me just as crazy as I have you?"

She ponders that a moment, and then blushes while shrugging, "I've… always wanted to do that too." Smirking, Will says, "Interesting. Why don't you tell me what else you've always wanted to do?" Her entire face turns color to match her hair, but as she shakes her head, Will picks her up and tosses her over his shoulder. Chuckling at her squeal, he explains, "Oh, sweetheart, you have to tell me now." "I do not!" "Oh yes you do."

Depositing her back on the bed, he kisses her silent for a moment. Then he quickly pulls his shirt off of her again, and whispers against her chest, "But don't worry. I have a few ideas of my own on how to get you to talk to me." And as he unsnaps her jeans, slipping his hand beneath the material to get at her most sensitive parts, she pants, "Oh, God." Will grins against her throat before saying, "I love you." "I love… you too. Please don't stop." "Never."

* * *

When the gang finally came over later, the first thing they saw upon coming in, was Harper in the kitchen. She and Will had gone shopping a couple of hours earlier, so she could get her hands on everything she needed. Now she was finishing up cooking, while singing a Celtic song as she put her various dishes on the table.

Will was leaning against a counter, smiling as he watched her at the moment. There was flour on his shirt, showing he'd clearly been involved in the cooking a little bit. Or, it was possible that he'd been part of the reason that it wasn't already finished.

The catcalls and teasing didn't cease for almost the entire evening after that. Harper's face stayed almost permanently red while they were inside. She took to just hiding herself behind Will's shoulder.

He'd just kiss the top of her head in response, smiling his own private smile when she'd kiss the back of his shoulder in return.

Now, as usual, the men were outside around the fire pit. Harper had already started on the dishes, when Will comes up behind her. Wrapping his arms around her, he says, "I told you I'd do them tonight." "And I seem to recall mentioning that you could do the dishes if you ever learned to beat me here."

She squeals when he tickles her sides, then smiles when he grabs a dry cloth and joins her at the sink.

It isn't until after they're finished that he presents her with a key chain with two keys on it. Tilting her head, she asks, "What's this?" He places it in her hands, and then says, "This one, is for this house." Harper blushes a bit, but grins all the same while asking, "Don't wanna have to come to the door to let me in?"

Will leans down to bump his nose against hers. Kissing her gently, he says, "Don't want you to have to knock on a door that you should be free to open whenever you please." And he grins when she kisses him as her response to his reply.

Then he points to the second key and says, "This one… is for a beach house that I'm renting for a week, starting tomorrow." Harper tilts her head again, but then her eyes widen before she asks, "You were serious?" "Very. You might look like you feel better, but there are still bruises on almost every inch of you." Smirking, he adds, "I should now, since I've now seen every inch of you."

She blushes again, but smacks him in the chest before laughing and asking, "So… we're going? To the beach?" "Yes. You need a vacation. And I need a vacation with you. And an old friend of mine said we could stay as long as we want. I paid for a week, but if you want to stay a little longer, we can."

Harper stares at him for a moment, and then smiles before saying, "Sounds lovely. I love you." "I love you too." He kisses her again, and then grins while saying, "By the way, it's a private beach." "Meaning?" "Meaning we don't really have to pack our swimsuits."

And as her blush rushes all the way to the roots of her hair, she lets out a breathless, "Oh, boy." "Mmm, hmm." He cups her face in both hands, slanting his mouth over hers for a deep kiss. But before she can begin dragging him away, and before he can suggest they head back to his bedroom, Epps shouts from outside, "Hey, lovebirds! No smooching while we're still here! We've only been here a couple of hours! Give it a rest!"

Harper pulls back, but Will just draws her back in. He shows Epps the middle finger through the window over the sink, to which his entire unit laughs. He finally pulls back with a grin and says, "I suppose we should go and keep them entertained a little while longer." "Oh, I don't know. I've always been under the impression that they're pretty good at entertaining themselves."

And his unit just laughs harder when, as Will tosses her over his shoulder again, she shouts, "I was kidding!" But they hear her laughter at him too, right up until the bedroom door is closed again. One of the other men turns to Epps and says, "Twenty bucks says they don't come out for at least an hour."

But another one from across the fire nearly spits out his entire beer when Bobby replies, "I'll bet a hundred that they forget we're even here and don't come back out at all."

* * *

The End! That's all I wrote for this. Just a quick little story that made me smile. It popped into my head while my little brother was watching the Transformers movie again, and so this is what I came up with. Hope you guys enjoyed it! Until next time.


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